The sale of The Royals Shopping Centre is ‘weeks away’ from being finalised, a source close to the deal has said.

The Southend shopping centre is listed as on the market for £13.42 million and Savills, who are facilitating the sale on behalf of Cromwell Property Group, says we are fast approaching a formalised deal.

Toby Ogilvie Smals, director of the firm’s investment team, says the finalisation of the sale is “a matter of weeks rather than months” – at the start of May Mr Smals had said the deal was eight weeks from conclusion.

The High Street centre boats retail giants Boots, Tk Maxx, Tesco, Poundland, and H&M as tenants and Savills had previously indicated the former Debenhams store had potentially been earmarked as space for new flats buy the unnamed buyer.

Mr Smals has previously described The Royals as offering “strong investment and exciting development opportunities”.

He said: “The former Debenhams unit in particular provides significant potential for repurposing into alternative uses including residential, and so we are expecting strong interest from investors and developers.”

Milton Ward councillor Cheryl Nevin welcomed the deal's progress adding a finalised sale would be a boon to the town’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

“We welcome any business to the town and any news which provides certainty for The Royals is good,” she said.

“It’s always good news to hear that people want to invest in our town. The coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact right across the country on retail but its really good to see businesses recovering where they can.

She added: “I’m a user of The Royals, like many residents. I was in there just the other day and it would be lovely to see businesses returning to the shopping centre.

“The council supports, and will continue to support, businesses with recovery here in Southend.”