FASHION retailer JD Sports has confirmed its new gym planned for a former department store isn’t opening at the same time as its new shop.
The chain announced last week its Cwmbran store would be moving into the former House of Fraser building, in Gwent Square, at the heart of the Cwmbran shopping centre in July.
But it has now clarified there is no confirmed opening date for the first floor gym.
The £4.1 million makeover of the former department store has been seen as a major part of the redevelopment of the town centre.
A statement from the company confirmed the new store will open in July.
It said it will provide it with more than 4,900 square foot of retail space on the ground floor – more than double its current unit at the popular shopping destination now branded M Cwmbran.
A spokesman for the firm said the gym isn’t expected to open until later this summer and it doesn’t yet have a confirmed opening date.
Torfaen Borough Council put up £2.5m in Welsh Government funding in 2023 towards the project to redevelop the former House of Frazer store that closed in June 2022.
The private owners of the Cwmbran Centre, L&C Investments, were required to provide £1.5m which was 38 per cent of the total investment.
Planning permission was confirmed in November 2023.
When the overhaul of the empty three-storey former department store in Gwent Square was agreed in spring 2023 it was said a new fashion shop and gym would “act as a catalyst for attracting new high quality retailers to the town”.
The store was considered the flagship site that was central to development of the new town when it opened as the David Evans department store in the 1960s. Redevelopment has been intended to give other “key partners” confidence to invest in future phases of development of the main square that is also home to the six-storey Gwent House office block and the Congress Theatre.
