Former Beales department store in Peterborough goes back on to the market

A search has begun for a new occupier for the former Beales store in Peterborough.

The Victorian Westgate House, in Westgate, is being marketed as having ‘potential for a range of uses’ by property services company Savills.

A floor area of between 10,000 to 50,000 square feet is being offered for an undisclosed rent.

The four storey property, which was built in the mid 1880s, has been put back on the market about three months after the closure of the Beales department store.

Beales opened in 2021 offering an array of products from beds to but closed following a dispute over its rateable value and the amount in business rates that the retailer was expected to pay Peterborough City Council.

It was the second time that Beales had made a home in the building. It had occupied much of the building for nine years until the national retailer went into administration in 2020 after which its brand and web address were bought just months later by New Start 2020, with director Tony Brown at the helm. The business is still trading in Poole and Stockport.Until 2011 the premises had been occupied by Anglia Regional Co-operative Society.

According to a sale broches prepared by Savills, the building, which has been extended and converted over the last 40 years and features a basement, ground, first and second floor, could be divided up to suit the individual requirements of potential tenants.