It will be May at the earliest before all of the outlets signed up for Preston’s new cinema and leisure complex are open.
The ‘Animate’ development will get its grand opening on 20th February when the flagship Arc Cinema stages a VIP launch before welcoming movie-goers at large to the eight-screen venue the following day.
Details have now been revealed about the timetable for when the city centre site’s other attractions will begin operating.
It had already been announced that cafe-bar Argento Lounge would become the first of the nine Animate units to open, on 5th February, but Preston City Council has now confirmed a second eatery – Mexican-inspired Taco Bell – will also start serving customers on a yet-to-be-fixed date sometime before the cinema opens its doors.
In a progress report to a meeting of the full council, cabinet member for community wealth building and city regeneration Valerie Wise said the 16-lane Hollywood Bowl will be up and running in March, while the Mad Giant Food Hall – featuring street food-style businesses – will get going from late April.
World buffet Cosmo is set to welcome its first guests in May, while even indicative dates have yet to be confirmed for the Ask Italian and Las Iguanas restaurants – meaning it will be at least another three months until all of the spaces so far rented out are trading.
An area reserved for a competitive games venue, like an escape room, is the only one of Animate’s nine units still without a tenant – and Cllr Wise said the sign-up rate had “exceeded projections”.
She also told members that all of the hard and soft landscaping around the £45.8m complex – which stands alongside the market hall – has now been completed.
However, a series of other works in the vicinity of the two-storey complex are ongoing, with the full suite of public realm improvements scheduled to be finished by the end of March.
On a revamp of Old Vicarage – which will form “a key route from the bus station to Animate” – Cllr Wise said: “There remains resurfacing works to [be done] to the carriageway and new lighting to be installed, which has been delayed due to temporary traffic regulation order restrictions.
“The widened footpaths are, however, open and in use and there are two existing lighting columns which serve as a temporary measure until six new [lights] are installed on the southern side of the widened footway.
“Projector lights…will [also] be installed that [shine] spotlight graphic imagery on the pavement to provide animation of the street.”
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