Town
Atriwm takes shape in the old Debenhams, opening now early 2027
Soft play is already in. So are the frames for indoor golf and a go kart track. The bill is 41 million pounds. The high street outside is thinner than when this building last sold a coat.
The former Debenhams at St Catherine Walk is no longer an empty box. Carmarthenshire Council is turning it into Atriwm, a mix of 24 hour gym, children’s play, indoor adventure golf, a TAG Active arena, a small electric go kart track, a cafe, NHS treatment rooms, university teaching space and a council customer service hub. Officers now talk about an early 2027 finish. The original aim was 2026.
Debenhams opened here in 2010 as the flagship of a new centre sold as west Wales’s go to shopping destination. The chain went into liquidation in late 2020. The Carmarthen store shut in May 2021. River Island, Fat Face, Topshop, Topman and H&M have gone from the same precinct in the years since. The council bought the building after the collapse and folded it into a 2021 Levelling Up bid.
The name Atriwm is meant to nod at the glass front that still lets light into the old shop floor. Pronounce it Ah tree oom. Occupiers listed by the council are Hywel Dda University Health Board, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, and the authority itself, which will move its customer service hub in and run the gym and children’s area through Actif Sport and Leisure.
What is going in
On one floor, soft play kit is already installed. Beside it the fit out is heading toward indoor adventure golf, a TAG Active arena, a short electric go kart track and a cafe with party rooms. Elsewhere a 24 hour gym is taking shape with spin and activity studios. Health rooms, including dental space, are being built out. Training rooms for health and social care students will include a viewing gallery over a mock hospital ward on one side and a kitchen and living room set on the other.
A new roof is on, with a 63 panel solar array and the mechanical plant the old shop never needed. Lead contractor is Bouygues UK. The construction contract was awarded at 27.713 million pounds. The forecast final cost of the whole project is 41.003 million.
Cllr Hazel Evans, whose cabinet brief includes regeneration, walked the floors this month and called the scheme a long term investment. “There is nothing worse than a redundant building,” she said. Asked if the money would be worth it, she pointed at footfall. The council line is that Atriwm will pull people back into the centre and give residents a single place for clinics, benefits advice, housing queries and a gym that does not close at nine.
The money, and the crack in the wall
The approved package is UK Government 20.19 million, Welsh Government 9.045 million, Carmarthenshire Council 11.458 million, and partner contributions of 309,287 pounds. That is 41.003 million in all.
Work started in 2024. A structural defect that the first surveys did not catch then showed up in the fabric. In January, cabinet member for resources Cllr Alun Lenny said 2 million pounds was being set aside to put it right and that he wanted a full report for members and the public. He said the fault would not have been visible until the strip out had gone far enough. Facade repairs have forced a three way traffic system on St Catherine Street. The council says that is likely to stay until autumn 2026. The multi storey car park remains open from St Catherine Avenue.
Those extra works are why the opening slipped from 2026 into early 2027. The council’s own pages still describe unforeseen remedial building work. Questions about value for money have not gone away. When pictures of the interior circulated at the end of August, a lot of the public reaction was blunt: 41 million pounds for golf, karts and a gym in a town that has already lost its department store.
A hub where a shop used to be
Atriwm is the council’s answer to a problem every county town in Britain now has. The big shop died. Knocking the building down would have left a hole in the precinct. Letting it sit empty would have dragged the units around it down with it. Filling it with public services and paid leisure is the bet. Whether a 24 hour gym and a dental suite replace the Saturday trade Debenhams once pulled is the test that starts in 2027, not in a cabinet paper.
The Chronicle will be back inside before opening, and will set the final bill against the 27.7 million contract and the 2 million set aside for the hidden defect.