The world's largest sporting goods retailer Decathlon is going to take the place of the former BHS site in Regent's Arcade this autumn. The store will be 20,538 ft2 and was secured by Canada Life asset Management, represented by Colliers.

Lloyd Entwistle, director in the Retail team at Colliers, commented: "Decathlon is a great addition to both Regent Arcade and Cheltenham. Good quality, purposeful retailers are still the bedrock of our towns and cities. As we look to re-purpose large amounts of retail space into other uses, prime space is attracting innovative and exciting retailers and leisure operators who give consumers what they crave after such a long time in lockdown."

Decathlon is the latest in a flurry of lettings at the centre and will sit alongside the new luxury Tivoli cinema and Kibou Japanese Hot Kitchen. Regent Arcade provides over 200,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space in the heart of Cheltenham's retail area and has been around for nearly 40 years on the site of an old hotel, The Plough.

Benoit Dufour from the Real Estate team at Decathlon UK added: "Cheltenham is a thriving town ideally located for a large variety of sporting activities. As Decathlon is accelerating its development in the UK, it is the perfect location for a long awaited first store in the South West. Traditionally an out of town operator, we feel that the town centre and Regent Arcade offers the best location to make sports accessible for our future customers in Cheltenham, Gloucester and their many satellite towns and villages.

"We are very excited to be able to add to the already strong retail offer present in Cheltenham. Our highly visible 20,000 square feet store will be ideal to promote our range of high quality, innovative and good value products, covering more than 70 sports in store and online."