THE BOSS of Blackburn’s shopping centre has admitted there were doubts over whether the project would see the light of day.

The £66million Mall complex is about to open, with Primark taking the anchor store.

It is a far cry from February 2008, when nothing happened on the site for months after the Lord Square building was demolished.

General manager Lorraine Jones said: “The most challenging time for me was the credit crunch.

"We had demolished all the units, and it was ‘was it going to happen or wasn’t it?’ “For 10 years people had been promised that the building would go ahead.

"We had demolished everything and it was a tricky time.”

Ms Jones also said the arrival of Primark in the town would be a major boost to the local economy, with “hundreds” of applications for jobs in the store already submitted.