The Westgate Department Store has been bought by independent department store chain Beale's in a deal worth £300,000.
The firm, which stocks women and menswear, gifts, cosmetics and homewears, says it wants to offer Rochdale shoppers an alternative to the growing number of discount stores in the town centre.
Beale's will begin a 25-year lease of the business this September, after purchasing the Westgate's assets from its current owners, the Anglia Co-operative. Staff have been told their jobs are safe.
The firm, which began in Bournemouth in 1881 and now owns 13 department stores nationwide, including Whitakers in Bolton, says it was attracted to Rochdale by the proposed multi million retail development.
In a statement, the firm said: "Beale PLC is impressed with the town centre plan and the new planned transport links and believes that its ownership of the store will provide the people of Rochdale with a better mix of shopping in the town than the current predominance of discount retailers."
The sale has been hailed as good news for the town's independent businesses.
Deputy leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Ashley Dearnley said he hoped the arrival of Beales would help to attract even more independent firms to the town centre.
He said: "This is a boost for our town's independents who are leading the way, bringing shoppers coming to the town centre."
Paul Turner Mitchell, chairman of the Voice of Rochdale Independents said: "We need a vision for our town centre and a choice that will make Rochdale unique. The greatest thing about the best high streets is their independents. If a distinctive high quality offer attracts shoppers back, everyone benefits.
"We really need now to be looking at attracting more investment into the town centre from the independent sector and the arrival of Beales is good news bolstering an already strong independent sector."
John Chillcott, the chief executive of the Anglia Co-operative, which acquired the store in 2005, said: "The staff have worked with enthusiasm, dedication and commitment to the business. I extend my sincere thanks to them for their contribution and wish them well in their future employment with JE Beale PLC.
"I would also like to thank regular Westgate customers for their past custom and assure them that it will be 'business as usual' for the time being. Anglia Co-operative and JE Beale PLC are working jointly toward providing as much continuity as possible for the staff and customers of the store going forward.
"Finally I'd like to thank those customers that have joined and become members of Anglia Co-operative and confirm that their purchases remain eligible for dividend until September 5 and that I shall write to them in due course about their membership and any future benefits there may be under the new ownership.
The sale is expected to be completed by Sunday September 5.
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£3000,000!!!
Can't buy a garden shed for that in Cheshire.
Does seem a bargain. You can't even by a detached house in Bamford that. Just shows you how the Council through their neglect have affected the value of assets in the town centre.
sotto voce, Cheshire £3000,000 = 3 million!! Garden sheds are expensive in Chesire.
I also have a feeling that the figure £300,000 may be somewhat misleading, unless they are just buying the lease.
Good effort Beales its all to late though the discount stores,pound shops,money lenders are rooted in our town as they have a huge populus to service therefore the customers you hope to entise into your shop have already left for shopping pastures new inc myself.
For a lease?
It's good news in terms of the people who work there and we really don't need another empty shop in the town, especially one as big as this one. The sad thing is it is replacing one shop, rather than an addition to the ones we already have. It won't really drag more people into the town because it's replacing like with like.
come to woodbine street and you can buy a peice of lasnd here and put 27 houses on it for a pound.BARGIN at a price....
Even people from Rochdale have figured it out that T K Max and Primark in Manchester are better value than the wasteland called Rochdale Town Centre.
They can have a few cheap drinks in the Moon on Deansgate then spy on the spectacular new shopping mall at Bury from the top of the big wheel.
Mmmm. Why is there so much civic pride and regeneration money being spent in Bury?
Answers please. Must be PC.
It's going to take a lot more than a few good shops brought in. There were good shops once upone a time, and certain people started buying up other shops that became vacant turning them into the type of places that attract undesirables, and it went into decline from there.
It's an age old scenario, what came first, the chicken or the egg- shoppers or the shops?
The market need relocating. Because of what that market has become and what it sells means the people it attracts have to walk through the centre, it's current location shows itself off to be the centrepiece of all that is Rochdale.
You can bring the shops in but can't you take those people out. Especially when they live in such close proximity.