Burrows Little's client, The Light, will operate the proposed nine-screen, 1,200-seat cinema within the renovated Market Place Shopping Centre in Bolton. The 30,000 sq ft cinema is being installed on part of the existing three-storey car park. Burrows Little was also involved in the preliminary feasibility discussions between The Light and Bolton Council and assessed a number of sites in Bolton prior to the selection of Market Place. Bolton does not currently have a town centre cinema and this was a council priority.
The £15m revamp of the 400,000 sq ft shopping centre has been on site since the start of 2015. Moorgarth, the UK arm of Inception Holdings SARL, is the developer/investor for the historic site. In addition to the installation of our cinemas, alterations to the existing basement brick vaults of the Victorian Market Hall are underway at the south of the centre, turning the space into 30,000 sq ft of restaurant space within seven or eight units. The works include the creation of a void between the Ground Floor and the basement to create views in the style of the arcades in Covent Garden, London. The overall redevelopment also includes modernisation of the 1980s extension, improvements to customer flow, new shop fronts, lifts and stairways.
Opening their doors at the end of 2015, The Light Cinema in Bolton will be Burrows Little's third completed cinema for the chain. Following hot on the heels of Bolton will be projects in Walsall, Sheffield, Stockport and other centres in the UK.