BOLTON town centre is to get a new cinema and restaurants in a multi-million pound transformation of The Market Place, its new owners have revealed.

The Moorgarth Group has bought the shopping centre and says it will plough another £15 million into revitalising it with a nine-screen cinema and restaurants.

It is believed to have bought the centre for about £24 million — more than the asking price of £20 million — from administrators of previous owners Agora.

Although 40 per cent of the complex is currently unoccupied, Moorgarth chief executive Tim Vaughan promised that people would begin to see changes almost immediately.

He said: “The Market Place requires significant investment and it will happen.

"In fact people will see over the next few days and weeks we will be spending a lot more money on marketing and promotions.

“We have already identified tenants to go into some of the vacant spaces, some on a temporary basis, others in the longer term.”

Although the company, whose major shareholder is South African retail tycoon Christo Wiese, is looking to make an immediate impact, the cinema project — pencilled in to be built where the car park is — must go through Bolton’s planning application process.

This means it will be a minimum of six weeks before it can approved.

However, council leader Cllr Cliff Morris pledged that, if necessary, a special planning committee meeting would be arranged to speed it through.


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Mr Vaughan said that, ideally, the whole complex would be complete by next Christmas.

He said: “We would like everything up and running by then, but that is a real push.”

He added that a key element to the development, apart from the cinema, was the scheme to expose the brick vaulted basement for the eateries.

He said: “One of the weaknesses of the town is that are limited places for people to eat.

“We will be developing 30,000 sq ft of restaurant space within the lower floor underneath the old market. Below there, you have beautiful vaulted basements, a phenomenal structure and we’re going to expose it, bringing access in from the old hall mall and create seven to eight restaurants.”

More on the plans for The Market Place: