Las Iguanas, The Restaurant Bar & Grill, Coast to Coast and Chimichanga to open
An £8m investment will see four restaurants opening in time for next summer (2015) within a long-awaited new dining quarter in Chester city centre.
Work is underway to create a total 25,000 sq ft dining space at former retail premises Habitat and Multi-York in Pepper Street, with plenty of outdoor seating.
Looking at the frontage left to right, South American cuisine will be offered by Las Iguanas in the old Chateau furniture store, within a three-storey scheme incorporating an open roof terrace, next door will be two-storey The Restaurant Bar and Grill, followed by ground floor only Coast to Coast, a European bar and restaurant and, finally, two-storey Mexican restaurant Chimichanga.
There will be outdoor seating in front of all eateries except Las Iguanas.
Roger Gorham, director of building owners Bride Hall, said: “Four deals done. Good tenants, Good line-up, I think. Good lease length. We’ve got 15-20 years, with some really good quality covenants which meant we were able to justify developing the scheme. Work has started now. We will be handing over to the retailers in February.
“In February, each tenant will take their own premises and they will fit them out. We don’t know the programmes yet but it’s probably going to be eight to ten weeks fit-out so they will be trading in summer of next year, which is an incentive for them as they get the summer trade.
“It’s interesting how much desire there has been for the outside seating. If you think what it was like a few years ago, no-one did it. We’ve taken on board this external seating area, European ‘sitting outside culture’, which I think is great and even if the weather is not 100%, people still like to be outside.”
Mr Gorham said the new scheme would add to existing restaurants in the area to form a dining quarter: “You’ve got Zizzi’s, you’ve got The Church, you’ve got Blackhouse, Piccolino’s and then up Bridge Street you’ve got Nando’s, Carluccio’s and Patisserie Valerie, so there’s some quite nice dining operations round there now.”
Mr Gorham believes there is plenty of demand to support such a large restaurant scheme in Chester.
“We had 12 offers for our four units. We wouldn’t have embarked on this process if we’d had concerns. I’ve seen it around the UK, the catering market is still very strong. People like going out and eating and you’re offering variations so people can choose where they go and eat. From very early on, I never had any doubt that we would get the demand and I still think there’s more demand in Chester.”
Last week The Chronicle revealed the Grosvenor Shopping Centre, also co-owned by Bride Hall and The Carlyle Group, had invested £5m in reconfiguring the mall to lure TK Maxx and Sports Direct, whose stores will open in 2015.