TESCO is set to open a new Express store on Belfast’s Donegall Place just days after closing the city centre Metro supermarket it operated for 25 years.
The retailer confirmed its decision last year not to renew the lease it has held on the former bank building next to Primark’s own bank buildings since 1996.
The lease isn’t due to expire until Sunday October 17. But Tesco has already closed the doors of the Metro store and cleared its shelving from the former shop floor.
Tesco will still retain a strong presence in the area, with an express store on Royal Avenue and a new soon to be opened unit just up the street at Donegall Place.
The former bank building on Royal Avenue went on the market earlier this year with an asking price of £4.25 million.
The listing from CBRE revealed the property carries an annual rent of just over £1m.
The 22,500 sq ft listed building dates back to 1869 when it was built as the Belfast branch for the Provincial Bank of Ireland.
Allied Irish Bank took it over in the late 1980s until Tesco entered the frame in 1996, building an extension.
