Okay okay, I am starting to think that Hull is going places with major developments like Kingswood, The Deep, knocking down Preston Road , extension of Princes Quay etc etc.

Then when I heard about the new St Stevens Centre (huge shopping centre on Ferensway), I thought, finally, a major attraction to the town that will bring us into the 21st century to catch up with Leeds & Manchester etc! Looking at the plans the place is HUGE! However, I was expecting shops like Harvey Nichols, H&M, Nike etc to be forefronting the building to show class and vision! However, what do we see.....
TESCOs
I'm sorry, but does anyone else agree that the planners majorly overlooked the image side of things when trying to entice investment and attraction to Hull! A huge TESCOs on the front of a major development like this hardly fills me with confidence that Hull officials are taking us in the right direction! Good effort... but no cigar!

Anyone else agree??

To be honest its probably down to who put the most money forward for plot size or who wanted their advertisement on the boards etc and Hull has a long way to go image wise.

Personally I dont think that money should have been the issue when deciding on the who gets the front stores! A bit of proactivity and sales could have meant some other 'cool' stores (even GAP) could have had prime position! It's obvious that even if the money put forward wasnt a great amount, the image of Hull would be far greater meaning more investments in the future! That's just being short-sighted (in my opinion).

Yeah but greed takes over, i think its pretty obvious when if its a toss up between whats best for it and what gets them more money, what do you think their going to go for, it annoys me too, its a shame really, with any look though St Stevens will attract more stores with bigger names to hull, i know my girlfriend would love a a Dior store in hull

Yah I think they kicked themselves in the 'nads on this one!

Ah, another town tries to create economic development with downtown projects. We may be an ocean away, but such troubles are similar here in the States. Many resources are wasted when government tries to control the free market.

After all he hype relating to this I gotta say I wasn't overly impressed when I went to see it. I just hope that there are more plans yet to be unveiled !!!

St Stephen's is better than what was there before, and kickstarts the attempts to give this city the retail it deserves. The main priority of the development as I understand it was to give retailers ALREADY IN THE CITY the chance to move into larger units, otherwise some of them would have quit Hull altogether.

The development is not intended as a one off cure-all, but is rather linked to the overall masterplan for the city centre. The plan now is for the traditional main shopping area of Whitefriargate etc. to be given a larger footfall because of planned residential developments on the river Hull, and to be converted to a new use ie; cafes, restaurants and boutiques ( sort of Hull's version of King St. in Manchester)

Added to this, the sort of higher quality names that people have been moaning about not appearing in SS, will be pencilled in for Quay West.

It all makes perfect sense when you read into the exciting plans that Citybuild have for KH.

Taken me a while to get back on this one, but i have to say that you have it spot on, and well done to you.
No big name store will move in on a promise. We now have the complex, and very good it is too. All it lacks is some famous brand names. I just wonder if the Hull economy can afford them. I fear that St Stephens will become nothing more than a shortcut from free parking to the town centre, rather than a destination for shopping.