A prominent Carlisle department store building is poised to reopen as a shopping venue.

The Cumberland News has learned that the former Hoopers and Bulloughs building, on Castle Street, has been sold. 

The proposal put forward is to continue with it as a retail building, rather than exploring some of the previously mooted suggestions of converting it or developing it for alternative uses.

Hoopers closed its doors for the final time in August 2012.

It reopened two months later as a discount designer outlet before closing once again in March 2013.

An attempt to sell the 38,000sq ft building at auction fell through.

It briefly opened its doors as Paris, run by Rebecca Menaged, in November 2014, but that closed under a cloud in September last year.

Hoopers opened in the city in 2006, in the building formerly home to the family-owned Bulloughs department store.

The company’s decision to pull out of Carlisle was blamed on trading conditions that left it facing six-figure losses.

Colin Glover, leader of Carlisle City Council, said: “This is really positive news. Carlisle is trading well and retailers are showing a lot of interest in the city.

“We look forward to the historic quarter continuing to grow.”