As the consumer environment continues to improve, local authorities are increasingly courting private developers and investment firms as a means of enhancing the variety of leisure and retail offerings within their regions. This has seen Darlington councillors approve the creation of a £30 million leisure development within the town centre – work on which will start later this month.
The Feethams Leisure development will bring a multiplex cinema, a new hotel and numerous new restaurant brands to the town centre, with tenants such as Vue Cinemas, Premier Inn and Nando’s already confirmed. Vue will operate the nine screen cinema while Premier Inn will open an 80 bedroom hotel catered towards businesspeople travelling to Darlington.
Other restaurants due to open on site include Italian brands Bella Italia and Prezzo, along with a Greene King pub under the Hungry Horse brand. Meanwhile, local eateries such as Chinese Buffet and Purple Pig will open their first Darlington outlets within the development.
In total, developer Terrace Hill believes around 150 permanent jobs will be created, along with the temporary positions created during the construction phase.
Councillor Bill Dixon, leader of Darlington Borough Council, welcomed the news that initial works will begin within the next few weeks, adding that the development will serve as an excellent complement to services already available in the town.
He said; “It shows that the professional investors have got huge faith in Darlington and will invest millions of pounds in the town.
“The jobs that will be created in the leisure industry are great news and will provide a great counterpoint to the hi-tech jobs in the science sector that we’ve recently attracted to the town – it’s important to achieve that balance.”
Although the scheme has been in the pipeline for several months, Terrace Hill did not initially expect to begin work on the site until early next year due to the timescale these projects generally take to acquire funding.
However, due to a merger between the developer and rival company Urban and Civic earlier this year raising £120 million on the Stock Exchange, Terrace Hill can now fund the project and retain it for its own portfolio rather than selling it to investors at a later date.
Terrace Hill development director Duncan McEwan confirmed that the development will run to a 65 week build schedule. Assuming all goes to plan, this means Feethams Leisure should open to the public by the time Christmas 2015 rolls in – a definite advantage for the tenants set to take up space within the complex.
Mr McEwan continued; “We are looking forward to getting it started, it has been a long time coming.
“The work behind the scenes for these things always takes quite a long time, especially as there have been a number of changes for our company.
“This is a great addition for Darlington and positive news for everybody.”
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