Plans for Kirkcaldy shopping centre are ‘positive step’

Postings Shopping Centre (Pic: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The struggling centre was put under the hammer with a nominal £1 pricetag, and was eventually sold for £310,000 to to Tahir Ali of Wakefield based, Evergold Property.

He plans to rebrand it as the Kirkcaldy Centre, and has engaged the Dunfermline office of Shepherd Chartered Surveyors to offer 14 of the empty units for lease.

Mr Ali was in town last week where he met with Bill Harvey at Kirkcaldy4All, and there are plans for him to also meet all the key players in the re-development of the town centre, including Kirkcaldy area committee, and Kirkcaldy’s Ambitions.

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Mr Ali believes The Postings – opened at a cost of over £4m in 1981 – has a good future.

He said: “Our aim is to reposition and revitalise this centre to the benefit of the local community.

“There are some attractive units here with an existing footfall averaging 15,000 people per week and we are already in advanced discussions with various operators for the large unit formerly occupied by Tesco as well as entering into discussion with prospective tenants offering a range of goods and services that serve the local community.”

The plans have sale of The Postings have been welcomed by members of the Kirkcaldy area committee, with Councillor Neil Crooks, convenor, describing it as “a time of opportunity, a time to be positive.”

He said: “I am hoping that we will have positive engagement with Mr Ali and that the investment that will be made will help bring our town centre back to life again.”

He added that he was glad that the shopping centre hadn’t sold for £1 as it had been advertised.

“That would have sent out a really negative message about the value of our town centre. It sold for £310,000 and that sale has come at a good time.

“We will meet Mr Ali next month and he is keen to learn about what the people of Kirkcaldy expect that to look like.”