When the St Giles Centre finally opened on Elgin High Street over 30 years ago it was more than two years late and, incredibly, had no shops.
The shopping centre has had a troubled history, stretching long back the first customers even stepped through the door.
Today its future is uncertain once again after Moray Council announced it was chasing the operators for £750,000 of unpaid business rates.
This is the story of how the St Giles Centre opened finally opened in 1991, but shoppers had to wait several months to actually have anywhere to spend their money.
It followed years of doubts about whether it would actually get built, contractors going out of business, tenants pulling out of deals and the initial plans being downsized.
Major retailers show early interest in St Giles Centre
When developers Sheraton Caltrust announced its St Giles Centre development in 1987 it was done in the hopes Elgin could rival Aberdeen and Inverness for shopping.
Initial estimates put the cost of the massive town centre development at £20 million.
However, the firm was bolstered with bold claims in the Press and Journal in July 1987 it had already filled more than half of the then 34 units planned for the building.
Officials brashly listed Currys, Mothercare, Dixons, Superdrug, Burtons, Dorothy Perkins and John Menzies among the firms lining up to open inside.
Not content with that, they boasted they could have got even more but had “drawn up the draw bridge” because there was no need to “fill up the centre prematurely”.
At the time, it was announced the St Giles Centre would be open for Christmas 1989.
Sheraton Caltrust chairman Peter Taylor told the Press and Journal it would provide Elgin with a “tremendous commercial and shopping heart”.
However, the first doubts about the project were beginning to surface with many reports of the period bemoaning the centre had not attracted an “anchor store” with Marks and Spencer specifically mentioned in several reports.
First opening date for St Giles Centre missed, second one looming
Three years later the St Giles Centre had already missed its opening date and a very different story was being spun by Sheraton Caltrust.
Far from fighting off tenants, they told the Press and Journal in June 1990 they now hoped they could manage to get at least half of the units filled by the time the doors opened.
But director Graham Thoms insisted this was no cause for alarm, explaining it was “very unusual” for all units in a new shopping centre to be occupied at opening.
Meanwhile, the Christmas 1989 opening had already been missed with hopes the tills would be jingling for Christmas 1990 instead.
However, the first doubts about the financial stability of Sheraton Caltrust were beginning to surface.
Shares in Sheraton Securities, which owned 50% of the partnership, had been suspended at the London Stock Exchange.
There were assurances though that while efforts continued to attract buyers for the firm, the “general opinion” was that Caltrust’s involvement in the St Giles Centre would continue.
Another Christmas on the horizon, third time lucky for opening?
By summer 1991 Sheraton Caltrust had collapsed and their receivers Touche Ross, now known as Deloitte, were in charge.
And one of the first things they did was immediately scale back the size of the project.
After initial estimates the shopping centre would cost £20 million in 1987, by 1991 prices ranging from £24 million to £26 million were being quoted.
Touche Ross described the original plans as being “unrealistic” for the financial capabilities of Sheraton Caltrust.
In July 1991 Moray District Council approved revised plans to reduce the size of the complex from 34 units to 28.
Approval was granted just 24 hours before a funding package put together by the receivers was due to lapse.
Moray District Council’s planning director stressed the deadline was not considered to be a “planning permission or else” ultimatum.
Robert Stewart added: “If the St Giles Centre is to be opened by Christmas, as everyone hopes, it will require a great deal of commitment from everyone involved – the receivers, the district council, the builders, the design team and the retailers themselves.”
Despite the delays, Touche Ross were still hopeful that Christmas 1991 would be the time Elgin could finally unwrap the building.
Meanwhile, there were hopes among the business community that the collapse of the initial developers would lead to a sale at a “knockdown price” to allow rents to be lowered.
St Giles Centre finally open as a ‘tourist attraction’ with no shops
A few months later, and Elgin finally received its belated Christmas present from 1989 in time for Christmas 1991 .
There was one important detail though – there were no shops.
However, officials pressed ahead with the opening with plans for a range of “visitor attractions” between November and Christmas.
Plans included offering space to the Moray District Arts Council and associated clubs to mount displays of gifts and crafts.
And there were also preparations being made for activities to attract would-be shoppers to look inside the new St Giles Centre.
What about tenants though?
Property agents were confident it wouldn’t be long until the units began to fill up with 12 “confirmed reservations”, including Dorothy Perkins, Radio Rentals, Superdrug and Benetton among the interested parties.
Meanwhile, it was confirmed Hydro-Electric would relocate from its South Street store to one of the shopping centre’s High Street units.
However, the complex was dealt a further blow when John Menzies, long touted as a tenant, confirmed it would not be moving in.
Dick Francis, the firm’s marketing director bluntly told the Press and Journal: “We are still interested in moving into Elgin, but not the St Giles Centre.”
First shops open in St Giles with big hopes for future
It was February 29, 1992 by the time Hydro-Electric became the first business to move into one of the St Giles Centre’s High Street units.
Things were beginning to look up for the St Giles. Just a month later John Menzies confirmed they were considering moving to Elgin again after being given a revised offer by letting agents.
And in June that year local firm Smilies the Bakers became the first to open inside.
Despite the saga ahead of the opening, owner Eddie Coutts, who would later become convener of Moray Council, remained optimistic about the shopping centre’s future.
He told the Press and Journal: “I am pleasantly surprised at how brisk business has been.
“A lot of people have been keen to knock the centre, but I am convinced it has great potential.
“It will make a tremendous difference once a few more shops are established.”
With the doors open, firms were now lining up to open in the St Giles Centre to join in Moray’s chapter of the golden era of shopping centres in the 1990s.
Clothesline was next to open, with the Press and Journal reporting in September that John Menzies had indeed taken up the revised lease they were offered.
Meanwhile, Argos, Dorothy Perkins, Adams Children’s Wear and Pentangle were all confirmed.
Phil Holllingworth, the centre’s operations manager, explained the decision to pedestrianise the High Street in Elgin had played a big part.
He said: “That is what the big shops like.”
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