From This is Kent!
MARGATE’S main arcade and run-down shopping centre is to be transformed by an expensive facelift by developers.
Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company, the firm which owns the Dreamland site, has bought a stake in the arcade that links Cecil Square to the High Street and is moving in this week.
Asset manager Mike McCarrick said: “At the moment we’re looking at investing several hundreds of thousands in the site, to do it up, improve shop fronts and refurbish interiors.
“We also want to put a performing stage in the square outside Peacock’s and replace the pigeons that currently live in it with local street theatre and performing artists. We’ll also paint over it in its entirety in the same colours as the colour scheme on the seafront, which we hope this will tie the town together.”
Seven out of the 15 shops in the centre are currently empty, as is the former Yates’s wine bar opposite in Cecil Square.
Many traders in the town centre feel that the exodus of shops and pubs has been exacerbated by Westwood Cross, but Mr McCarrick thinks both can co-exist.
He added: “There are certain types of retailer that benefit from out-of-town development and different types that do well in town centres. It is this type of shop we are hoping to attract, small businesses and people setting up their own companies.”
But those in other areas of the town say they are still waiting for the promised the investment to reach them.
Leslie Howard, whose Joke Shop is the only shop remaining in the Arlington Arcade on the seafront, said: “When we heard the rumour we hoped it was this arcade that would be done up, as we’ve been badly neglected, but then I suppose any investment in Margate is a good thing.
“We just hope something will be done to our area of the town because at the moment we don’t know where we are.”
