Turnstone Estates has secured funding of £15.7m from Standard Life Investments towards its 47,000 sq ft Ely Leisure Village development due to open in Cambridgeshire early next year.
McDonalds, KFC and Costa Coffee have signed leases, adding to the appeal for customers when the scheme opens. They join Frankie & Benny’s and a Hungry Horse pub, operated by Greene King, which have already committed to Ely Leisure Village.
Main contractor RG Carter Projects has now started construction work onsite on the 49,000 sq ft scheme, with completion due in early 2017.
The leisure park, on a 6.5 acre site by the A10 at Downham Road, is set around a six-screen Cineworld cinema, four in-line restaurants, two drive-thru units, a further solus unit and 380 car parking spaces together with an underpass.
Tim Deacon, director of Turnstone Estates, said, “We’re working hard to create a successful leisure park with a great choice of restaurants to support our anchor cinema Cineworld. Ely Leisure Village will serve a vast catchment north of Cambridge where currently there is no leisure provision. Coupled with the proposed swimming and leisure centre in phase two this is set to be become a major leisure destination.”
Sandy Pringle, Fund Manager at Standard Life Investments, acting on behalf of a segregated client, commented, “Ely Leisure Village will deliver a fantastic new leisure scheme for the town, meeting the growing demand for restaurant and leisure facilities in the area. The investment will also provide the Fund with an excellent source of long term income, let to a variety of high quality tenants.”