Perth woman hopes to bring activity and arts hubs to empty St John Street sites

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Perth woman is hoping to lead the rejuvenation of the Fair City’s St John Street with plans to open activity and arts hubs at two former prime retail units.Louise Velazquez has been revealed to be one of the applicants to occupy the closed Beales department store building.She is also in ongoing talks to set up shop at the currently vacant Lakeland retail outlet unit next door.The former Perth Beales store closed in March 2020 along with its 22 fellow stores across the UK.After almost two years of laying empty, the building shows signs of deterioration.Previously, the ornate building was the home of McEwens of Perth and had enjoyed a long history since opening in 1868 of providing high-end clothing and fancy homewares before in 2016 becoming a casualty to the change in shopping habits away from the high street.Beales then took over the unit in late 2017, making Perth home to the retail chain’s first Scottish store.Next door, household and kitchenware supplier Lakeland closed its St John Street unit “with regret” last May following the downturn caused by the pandemic.Director of Glasgow-based Breck Sutherland Property Consultants Alan Stewart revealed last week that there was concrete interest in the former Beales store.“We are actively looking for a tenant for the Beales site in Perth,” he added.“We have a well known Scottish operator as well as a partner museum strongly interested.

Both are in discussion with us at the moment.“We hope we can pass on good news soon, but due to its size, it takes a long time for due diligence to take place.”That ‘partner museum’ plan is headed up by Mrs Velazquez who hopes to occupy the space with skills and trade workshops, art gallery displays, and creative activity classes - but