Former Joplings store bought up by Sunderland City Council, with hopes to house food and drink businesses

A much-missed former department store has been bought up by Sunderland City Council.

Joplings pulled its shutters down for the final time in 2010 after the owners went into administration, with the prime corner unit laying empty for eight years until 2018 when Groovy Students turned the upper floors into student accommodation, honouring the site’s history by calling it Jopling House.

Retail units on the ground floor and basement were put on the market in 2022.

Now council chiefs have bought up the Jopling House, which sits between the Riverside Sunderland and Sunniside regeneration areas, with the site being seen as key to their vision for the city centre.  

The council said the former high street department store will be improved at ground floor level, with the aim of attracting retail or food and drink businesses 'to bring vibrancy at a street level'.

They said there will also be work to enhance the upper floors, improving the external fascia which was left unfinished by the previous owner. 

Councillor Kevin Johnston, dynamic city cabinet member at Sunderland City Council, said: “Our residents deserve a city centre they can be proud of, and - wherever we can impact on that - we are delivering. 

“Council-led developments like our City Hall, The Beam and the multi-storey car park at Farringdon Row, are raising the bar in the city centre and, in turn, this pushes others to do the same. 

“We cannot buy or develop every single building in the city centre, but what we can do is nurture an environment in which our traders are given the best possible chance of success, by ensuring the right developments move forward and with our plans for Sunniside – which will see the development of a new cluster of creative studio-homes – we want to knit this into the transforming Riverside Sunderland area and ensure the quality of offer in the city centre is as high as possible.”

Jopling House is currently divided into 140 en-suite apartments, specifically targeting students looking for accommodation close to campus.

The council said it is understood that the site’s previous owners were engaged in discussions that could have seen it move away from student accommodation.

Cllr Johnston added: “It is important, in the context of our hugely ambitious aims for the city centre, that this site attracts the right kind and level of ongoing investment, to keep pace with the quality of development we are bringing forward elsewhere in the city, and in Sunniside and High Street West.  

“We do not plan to make any changes to the use of the building but will look to drive investment that will regenerate its ground floor, creating a vibrant high street that complements the transformation underway on the doorstep. We’re determined that Riverside Sunderland is a stimulus for a whole-city-centre regeneration and that we connect surrounding areas into it.”