The store is situated in Donegall Place’s Fountain House, a five-storied building that formerly housed New Look. The location isn't that far from the already established Primark store at Bank Buildings.
Following the fire and subsequent shutdown of certain portions of Belfast's city centre, Primark finally reopened at Castle Street’s Commonwealth House in the beginning of December 2018. And in just a few months, the Commonwealth Store slowly spread its footprint in the area. This new store is not expected to replace other Primark stores in the neighbourhood since it caters to a different set of buyers altogether.
The new store, as a per a Primark spokesperson, is launched in addition to the Castle Street store. It would be showcasing only fashion items on the first three floors, with the combined retail space being more than 24,000 square feet. The fashion offerings include the latest trends in kids wear, menswear, luggage and home. The new store’s ground floor is fully dedicated to kid’s wear, with a wall displaying Disney-themed clothing. Womenswear, beauty ranges, and accessories would be part of the Castle Street store’s offerings.
Belfast City Centre has not completely recovered from the fire accident that happened in August 2018. This is clear from the fact that two prominent businesses – Tesco (Royal Avenue) and City Picnic (Castle Street) – that were affected by the fire would be reopening only by June 2019. Zara, fashion retailer, resumed its central Belfast business in March 2019 after having shut shop for eight months.
Despite the rains, shoppers flocked the new store curious to learn what’s inside. The shop has been under construction for several months since the fire, which the city’s residents were witnesses to, and therefore were quite eager to see how the renovation efforts had panned out. Not surprisingly, the store opened its gates at around 9 am to several excited customers.
The people who managed to see the store were quite impressed by both the collections and the overall layout of the store. And since the place is quite spacious, people were not bumping into each other looking around despite having assembled in large numbers.
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