AN AMERICAN burger chain could come to Oxford after a marketing firm said the Westgate centre could make parts of the city 'leisure' destinations at the expense of shops.

Five Guys wants to open in Magdalen Street on the site of designer clothing shop Jaeger, after its premises attracted no interest from retailers.

The designer store will move into the new £440m development when it opens in October and marketing firm Colliers International said the centre's imminent arrival was changing the landscape of the city.

Director of retail at Colliers, Lloyd Entwhistle, said: "Despite marketing directly to a mixture of tenants, Colliers only received interest from restaurant operators.

"The proximity of the site to the Odeon cinema, coupled with the imminent opening of the Westgate shopping centre to the southwest means that the unit is now predominately a leisure pitch.

"This is reflected in the nature of the interested parties that came forward with a view to occupying the unit."

The unit was marketed as a shop but, according to Colliers, there were no interested retailers at all.

A change of use application has now been submitted to planning authority Oxford City Council by Five Guys and Mr Entwhistle said that if it was unsuccessful the site would likely remain empty for the foreseeable future.

The plans, which would create 45 jobs, incorporate the entire ground floor of Oxenford House, next to Lola Lo and the Odeon cinema.

Five Guys began as a single burger restaurant in Virginia in 1986 but there are now more than 1,000 branches in North America and 40 in the UK.

Under the Oxford local plan at least 75 per cent of the units in primary shopping locations, which include Magdalen Street, Cornmarket Street, Queen Street and George Street, must be retail.

Five Guys' application showed that even if its proposal was approved this would still sit at 77 per cent.

Daniel Millward, submitting the plans on behalf of the company, said the restaurant had done well in major cities in areas with large footfall.

He said: "Five Guys has now successfully opened numerous restaurants across the UK including sites in London, Bristol, Reading, Cardiff, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Manchester to name a few.

"Due to the nature of the business, Five Guys trades extremely well in high profile, high footfall locations, providing a complementary use to shopping centres and contributing to the vitality and viability of the area."

The proposed restaurant would open from 11am to 1am on Monday to Saturday and 11am to midnight on Sunday.

To comment on the planning application visit oxford.gov.uk and search 17/00697/FUL.

A decision is scheduled to be taken by May 24.