A BLACKBURN retail park has changed hands for £27million.

The Peel Centre, Lower Audley Street, includes Matalan, Staples, the Vue Cinema and the DW Fitness centre.

New owners PRUPIM are not understood to be planning major changes to the retail complex, but town centre traders said they were becoming incr-easingly concerned about the influence of out-of-town venues.

It was formerly owned by another property giant, Peel Holdings, which also owns the nearby Ice Arena.

PRUPIM already boasts Manchester’s Arndale centre and Europe’s largest shopping centre, Bluewater in Kent, in its £15.4billion portfolio.

A PRUPIM spokesman would not comment on the reasons for the Blackburn purchase.

But it is thought to be a long-term move by the company, which invests pension funds into 800 properties looking to recoup the rent from about 4,000 tenants.

The sale comes as council bosses warn of the threat of out-of-town retail parks to their attempts to revitalise Blackburn town centre.

Last week, deputy chief executive Andrew Lightfoot gave evidence at a public inquiry into Preston’s £700million Tithebarn scheme.

He claimed it would undermine the £66million Mall shopping centre, due to open this summer.

And he warned Marks and Spencer could choose to move to one of the retail parks just outside the town centre.

The department store looked set to move into the Mall earlier this year, but could not be tempted by the financial package offered by the council and shopping centre.

Darwen Street jeweller Phil Ainsworth, of the town centre partnership, said the park’s proximity to the town centre made it harder for traders.

He added: “People are tempted by the free parking.

"Then we need to make sure they walk through into town, but often they do not.

“If someone spends money like this it shows they are serious, and the growth of out-of-town retail parks is a concern.”