The luxury fashion retailer approached the landlord Pan Albion Group last summer to express its interest in the listed building adjacent to Hugo Boss on St Peter’s Gate in the city centre.
As part of Armani’s negotiation, it stipulated it would need to carry out alteration works on one of the windows in the building before it could take the store.
Following this an application was submitted in September to alter the main shopfront window, joining two panes of glass that are divided by timber.
However this application has now been refused on the grounds that the building is listed.
As part of the application, Ben Tebbutt, a surveyor at Nottingham-based firm Fisher Hargreaves Proctor, which is acting for the landlord, wrote to the council stressing the importance of the alteration works to Armani.
In the letter Tebbutt said: “It is crucial that we gain planning permission for the alterations to the windows on the ground floor in respect of St Peter’s Gate.
“Armani would be a fantastic tenant for not only this building but also for Nottingham itself. With major extensions to both Westfield Derby and the Highcross Quarter in Leicester, it is crucial that Nottingham does all it can to maintain its position as the dominant city within the East Midlands.”
Armani is now understood to have pulled out of the discussions altogether and axed plans to open a store in Nottingham.
Speaking to Retail Week this week Tebbutt said: “It was massively frustrating. Nottingham as a city should be bending over backwards to get someone like Armani in, especially at a time like this. We’re not talking about a significant restructuring of the building.”
He added that a similar application was approved on the neighbouring building, which houses Hugo Boss, allowing the retailer to open in October 2004.
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