Planning has been approved to turn the former Topshop retail outlet on Bangor High Street into to a mixed-use building to be known as Tŷ Cyfle with the hope of creating a thriving, vibrant facility that will benefit the residents of Bangor and the wider area.
According to the planning statement, the development will include customer service facilities for Grŵp Llandrillo Menai (GLlM) with “pop-up” space for other agencies. The first floor will provide a life-long learning training facility to be run by GLlM. The application was submitted by GLlM who are in the process of purchasing the building.
The site is one of the larger units within the city centre of Bangor and was previously occupied by Topshop/Topman until they vacated the building in Summer 2020. Since then, the unit has been sold twice and has been marketed for lease purposes by multiple agents however without any success with retail occupiers. The current vendor purchased the building in November 2021 and have been seeking prospective tenants since then.
It’s anticipated that the ground floor of the building will be a customer service area used by Grŵp Llandrillo Menai with space for “pop-up” type presences for other agencies.
The first floor would provide a life-long learning training facility to be run by GLlM. The facility would include:
- numeracy (building on work developed as part of the Shared Prosperity Funding “Multiply” project), literacy, IT literacy, employability skills, learning support, confidence building etc.
- Employment linked taster sessions – linked to areas of skill requirements in North West Wales (e.g. STEM) and meet the employer events
- Life Skills Support – e.g. basic financial management, cooking on a budget, confidence building, wellbeing, health etc; and
- the potential to provide a base for GLLM full time students that wish to interact with the public in Bangor e.g. street performances, vox pops, etc. All will contribute to day-to-day life in the city centre
