A council boss has teased the arrival of “landmark” new shops that could soon be arriving in a North East city centre.

Paul Stewart, Newcastle City Council’s head of property, told councillors on Tuesday how he hoped for major announcements about new additions to Eldon Square in the near future.

It comes just days after the shopping centre unveiled designs for a £65m redevelopment of Eldon Square to fill gaps left by the demise of big-name retailers like Debenhams.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service previously revealed in September that a “major retailer”, that remains unnamed, was on the verge of taking over the two middle storeys of the centre’s empty Debenhams unit – which is one of Eldon Square’s anchor sites, but has been left vacant since the department store’s collapse in 2021.

Addressing members of the council’s finance scrutiny committee on Thursday, Mr Stewart said that things were looking up for Eldon Square, after a devastating few years that has seen its value collapse and multiple shops close down.

He said: “Eldon Square are being approached by businesses now – they aren’t going to people, people are coming to them. That is a huge shift.

“Hopefully there will be some really positive announcements about Eldon Square and retailers coming in who will be landmark tenants for the city. That is on the back of the positive feeling around the city and the real positive atmosphere we have at the moment.”

Mr Stewart told the committee how the net yearly income generated by Eldon Square, in which the council owns a 40% stake, had dropped from circa £21m to £10m.

Plans for a major transformation of the centre that were showcased to shoppers last weekend include adding new family-friendly sports and leisure attractions.

One would take up the top floor of the huge Debenhams site, with a second at the disused Eldon Leisure Centre.

The proposals could bring new dining, art, socialising and live music spaces, as well as activities such as crazy golf and karting.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Liberal Democrat Gareth Kane expressed concerns that Covid-driven cultural shifts such as working from home would be here to stay and that city officials must find ways to “revitalise the city centre in ways that do not involve these big stores that are easily replaced by a website”.

It comes amid predictions of a £3m budget deficit within the authority’s commercial property portfolio this year due to a drop in rental income at some key sites – namely Eldon Square, the Grainger Market, the deteriorating Higham House offices on New Bridge Street, and the Partnership House offices in Gosforth.

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Mr Stewart insisted that the commercial property operation was generally performing well, aside from “one or two big problems” over which the council had little control.

He said that factors behind the falling revenue included the general shift towards online shopping, the devastating impact of the pandemic and a desire from employers to move their offices back towards city centres rather than out-of-town business parks.

Mr Stewart added: “Through no fault of our own, there has been a catastrophic change that we have to deal with.”