The owner of Cardiff's famous Howells building is ready to embark on ambitious plans that will completely change the site.
At present the 1.7 acre site is home to House of Fraser but the new plans will see the building become home to a number of new tenants.
The plans include introducing leisure, food and beverage, accommodation, and office space to the historic site. Change of use applications are going in this week.
"Right now the building is 277,000 sq ft, and House of Fraser has been operating in half of that," explains Azeemeh Zaheer, CEO of Naissance Capital Real Estate, who acquired the site in 2016 .
"We all know retail doesn't need that large of a footplate. This asset is almost two acres of freehold property in the middle of a city centre and it holds a huge significance to people of Cardiff and Wales.
"This place was highly aspirational, it was a destination for people to come to. What we want to do is continue to make and form that experience for people in Wales and their visitors."
While Ms Zaheer was unable to reveal the name of the new tenants coming in at this stage she said there will an announcement in the next fortnight for a big name that will be taking over part of the site.
"We are not looking to take out retail, we're just looking to create a truly mixed use scheme," Ms Zaheer added.
"While everyone loves House of Fraser and Howells they also have all mentioned it is in need of upgrades. We have have reached out to the Welsh Government and Cardiff City Council and they have all been supportive, as have senior members of Cadw. We have worked with them and would like to enhance and uncover Bethany Chapel subject to those discussions in the future."
Ms Zaheer believes a mixed use site will be of benefit to all the businesses on the site.
"Everywhere you go in all the major cities around the world, to increase footfall you need a healthy mix of leisure, office, potentially a place to stay and retail, maybe a place to eat and drink.
"Because it such a large property it is like it a city within itself. It doesn't make sense to isolate it into one specific asset class, it makes sense to create, and curate a place with businesses that complement each other, help increase footfall for each other and that's what we have been working on."
"Because this is such a beautiful asset and there has been so much interest in Cardiff, and investment in Cardiff we also been benefiting from that. We've had a lot of interest into this space and we've been thinking about which tenant would be best complement the other tenant, and what would be the best for job creation.
"When Sports Direct bought over House of Fraser and we worked with them to provide a licence to continue on and we were together able to save 250 jobs.
"At its peak the building had 500 people working here and the plans we have in store for Howells is to take the jobs back to more than 500."
Towards the end of last year plans for the transformation of the site showed a courtyard being created in the middle of the site, with a hotel or aprt-hotel as part of the plans . However, Ms Zaheer says the plans have changed substantially since then.
Ms Zaheer is keen to hire and appoint all local talent.
"We wanted to highlight Welsh talent and ingenuity," she explains.
As a result the Cardiff-based Rio Architects, commercial real estate agency EJ Hales, and property and construction consultancy Gleeds have all been working with Naissance Capital on the project.
It is part of Ms Zaheer's desire to keep the reputation of the building intact. At this point Ms Zaheer quotes a story about the House of Fraser store manager, Adam Steel, who greets all new employers by asking about their experiences of Howells, of the people they know that work or have worked there, as everyone knows someone who has worked in the store, and finishes by explaining that they are now part of its history.
"Elements of that will continue to stay, that legacy is something we want to live on forever," Ms Zaheer says.
The Cardiff branch of House of Fraser has navigated a turbulent few months. In June last year it was named as one of the sites to close as part of a CVA. It was scheduled to close in January, 2019, with staff facing redundancy.
When the news broke that Cardiff was listed for closure in June Ms Zaheer revealed three hotel chains had been in touch to discuss the site.
Then, in August Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley purchased the chain of department stores for £90m and set about renegotiating deals with landlords in a bid to keep the stores open.
In late September, Ms Zaheer announced she has reached an agreement with Mr Ashley to keep House of Fraser in the building and remains positive about maintaining a good relationship with them. The new collection of tenants will enhance their footfall and compliment retail purchases.
