British Land to develop leisure site next to Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth

30th Sep 2014 08:45

British Land has struck a deal with Plymouth City Council to develop Drake Circus Leisure, a 100,000 square foot site located next to its Drake Circus Shopping Centre in Plymouth city centre.The £40m development will include a 12-screen cinema operated by Cineworld, 13 restaurant units and 450 car park spaces. The site currently houses a coach station which will be relocated. It is currently developing a detailed planning application for the scheme, which will be submitted in early 2015. The group intends for the development to complement the shopping centre and to establish the area as an evening destination.Occupancy at the centre was recently increased to 100%.Retail development director for the group, David Pollock, said: "Plymouth has a very strong local catchment, and a vibrant and successful city centre, which will be further enhanced by our investment. The proposed leisure scheme creates an opportunity to take Drake Circus to the next level, and with a number of new brands added, is a very strong example of our strategy to create 'places people prefer'."We are delighted to be working with Plymouth City Council on this project to establish Drake Circus as the West Country's retail and leisure destination of choice." It added that Plymouth has a large and affluent catchment of 560,000 people and is visited by around 3.4m tourists each year.