Developers hope to tie up a series of deals with retailers at the landmark Hanningtons department store site in Brighton.

The store was housed in a number of buildings fronting North Street, East Street and The Lanes.

The store, which closed last summer, is now being converted into smaller shop units and is drawing interest from a number of businesses.

Brighton and Hove's city centre manager Tony Mernagh believes Hanningtons, and the former Essoldo cinema development, could make North Street a real rival to Western Road as a honey pot for shoppers.

Mr Mernagh said although there were more than 1,300 city centre shops, there were few large outlets and more were urgently needed.

He said: "Cities of a similar profile like Oxford, Cambridge and York have, on average, 580 shops. We have about three times as many but we have lots of little shops.

"That is why we only have one department store now - we do not have the space. These developments are giving us something we desperately need.

"I originally thought the Hanningtons units would be taken up with excess demand for East Street and would be quite upmarket establishments.

"Because negotiations are taking place, nobody is really talking about who is likely to move in. But I have no reason to disbelieve my first thoughts.

"The site will be a serious contender for competition with Western Road."

Mr Mernagh said he knew the developers were reluctant to divide the Hanningtons units up until they knew what businesses would be moving in.

One firm which has already done so is Bournemouth-based extreme sports and leisurewear shop Just Add Water, which opened just before Christmas.

Marketing manager Dan Young said: "The unit was available and big enough to house everything we wanted to put in it."

Nick Ellis, of Hanningtons project managers Ellis and Partners, said: "We have had a tremendous amount of interest in the scheme.

"There is quite a lot of building work going on dividing the main ground floor into 16 or 17 shop units.

"These are being marketed and we have one occupied. Discussions are being held over a further ten or 12.

"Upstairs, it is mainly clearance work going on at the moment because we are having to strip much of it out.

"At one section at the top end of North Street, we have applied for a small scheme of five flats. Planning permission is pending."