A CHAIN has been secured to open a flagship multi-screen cinema and state-of-the-art bowling facility at the £70 million Tollgate Village retail and leisure park.
Tollgate Partnership Limited has announced The Light will run the new venue at its hotly anticipated development with work set to begin later this year.
It is due to be completed before the end of 2021 with the cinema and bowling alley between them creating 70 new jobs.
The cinema will offer independent and mainstream films, including live theatre, music, opera and will also host special events.
Daniel Watts and Jayne Gee, directors of Tollgate Partnership Limited, said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with The Light. “We have been on the look out for some time for the right company to work with, that would match our aspirations.
“We were blown away by The Light’s Stockport cinema and after meeting the co-founder Keith Pullinger we knew immediately this was the perfect operator for Tollgate Village.
“The Light is exciting, innovative and forward-thinking brand and they understand our vision for the area.
“We have had approaches from other leisure operators, restaurateurs and retailers for Tollgate Village and hope to be in a position to announce more news soon.”
The Tollgate Partnership is waiting for planning approval for a series of minor changes to the development designed to improve accessiblity.
Once complete, Tollgate Village will be a 30,812 sq m retail and leisure park made up primarily of shops at Tollgate Retail Park and the old Sainsbury’s site.
The cinema and bowling alley will be at the heart of the leisure hub which will be located south of Tollgate West, also featuring up to nine restaurants.
There will be public plazas outside both sections of the development and a promenade walking route featuring plants and benches will the link the two.
The Light operates ten cinemas across the UK with four more in the pipeline.
Mr Pullinger said: “Having thoroughly investigated the market, we are confident Tollgate Village is the ideal place for The Light, It is a superb, fully accessible location with a wide range of public and private transport links, car parking and a host of restaurants already operating at Stanway.
“The cinema experience we offer is second to none in terms of screens, sound, projection and seats. “This, together with our kitchen, bar and the full-sized bowling offer, means we provide the complete evening out for families and people of all ages.
“The Light is very, very different to what other cinemas do. We work hard to design our cinema offer to suit each community and the venue always has plenty of personality. We take The Light proposition and we add local food, wines and beers to appeal to a broad sector of the community.”
The new cinema could be a year ahead of the Colchester Council-backed Northern Gateway leisure development, which is being created by Turnstone Estates.
The Northern Gateway cinema will be run by Cineworld and is due to be open by 2023.
It will mean Colchester has a total of four cinemas including the Odeon and Curzon in the town centre.
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