ANY prospective tenant in the old Debenhams store in Newport city centre could face a rental fee of more than £300,000, based on estimates for other empty properties nearby.

This month, vinyl screens were put up around the former department store, in Friars Walk, advertising the premises as to let with chartered surveyors Emanuel Jones.

It is being listed as price on application, but after looking at other properties the firm is marketing in central Newport and doing some quick calculations, any prospective new tenant for the Debenhams site could be looking at paying annual rents of between 54 per cent and 62.5 per cent of its rateable value.

With Emanuel Jones listing Debenhams as having a rateable value of around £512,000 it means a new arrival may end up paying from £275,000 to £318,000 to take it over.

That, of course, is an estimate and doesn't take into account any incentives new tenants would be offered to move into the Debenhams site, which has been empty for nearly two years.

As the Argus reported previously, documents shared on the Newport City Council website showed another firm was willing to offer new tenants up to 18 months' free rent at a separate development in the city centre.

The future of the former department store in Newport is far from certain. When Friars Walk opened, Debenhams was dubbed the centre's anchor store, but the retailer's collapse in 2021 meant the closure of its shops across the UK - it continues to operate online under the ownership of Boohoo.

The Newport store stood unused for more than a year but has recently become a vaccine centre where people can get their Covid-19 jabs.

However, with the Welsh Government's announcement on Thursday that the coronavirus vaccine programme would be wound down, there is no guarantee this use will continue for much longer.

Recently, we asked our readers what they felt the old Debenhams should become. The site is one of the city centre's largest retail spaces.

Suggestions included making it a live music venue, especially because of the closure of the Newport Centre. There are currently no plans to host live music events at the replacement leisure centre which will be built in Usk Way.

Others called for it to remain a shop, and suggested other big name brands such as M&S or Primark would be a good fit for the former Debenhams.