THE MAJOR retailer who will take over Southampton's prime city centre commercial site will be named within the next month.

Final negotiations are underway with a high street giant to take over the former Marks & Spencer store on Above Bar, and paperwork should be completed in the next few weeks.

The site is currently held by Redevco Holdings, the property arm of the C&A retail group. Originally the clothing store was due to move its operation from the top of Above Bar street to the M&S store, but then it was announced that all C&A stores would be closing.

Redevco went ahead with taking over the lease, despite the setback over C&A, and managing director Alastair Gordon said there had been a great deal of interest in the site.

"Once C&A announced its closure in the UK, we had a lot of interest in the site. We now have two major names interested and we hope to assign the interest of one of those retailers in the next few weeks," he said.

The M&S building was one of many left vacant with the opening of the £275 million WestQuay Shopping Centre.

A WestQuay spokeswoman said South-ampton was currently establishing itself as one of the UK's greatest retail cities. The opening of the new shopping centre has propelled the city from 26th to 12th in the list of best cities to shop, according to retail experts.

"Southampton is currently establishing itself as both the regional capital for shopping and leisure, and one of the UK's leading cities. As a result of this process, the city will evolve and greatly improve over the coming months."

The former Tyrrell & Green building is expected to be let to a well-known furnishings retailer on a short-term lease. In the future there are plans to totally redevelop the Guildhall Square area and the Tyrrells building will form the linchpin of the plan.