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The virtual Link Magazine now online @ www.swindonlink.com 5

Thumbs up for third cinema
complex and new shops by 2010
Proposals to increase the number of shops, restaurants and cafes, and
cinema screens in the town centre have been met with approval by the
public who could be using the facilities in just three years.

The entrance to Regent Place at the top of Regent Street incorporating the portal of
the former tabanacle which used to stand just yards away before demolition in the
early 1980s. Behind it is a proposed art gallery and the base of a residential tower
block. On the right the roof top restaurants and the proposed multiplex cinema
The £200 million Regent Place first event in October and show we
development in the town centre - are pulling in the same direction in
between Regent Street and Com- moving this important regenera-
mercial Road - was put on display tion project forward.
for the second time in late January “Almost everyone we spoke to
and goes before Swindon Coun- was positive about what we are
cil’s planners later in the year. promoting; there is a general rec-
The Modus Properties scheme ognition that a redevelopment of
will offer 300,000 square feet of the town centre is required to pro-
retail space, centred around a ma- vide the shops, leisure and park-
jor food store, large and small re- ing facilities required to drag Swin-
tail units, an 8 or 9 screen cinema don into the 21st Century and start
and a ‘Manna’ food hall. A hotel competing with the likes of Read-
and some 250 residential apart- ing, Bath and Bristol.
ments will be built, and an under- “Another interesting observa-
ground car park will provide 750 tion was the switch from the scep-
spaces. ticism that this redevelopment will
A new pedestrian street on two actually get off the ground. People
levels will be built over what is commented on the many ‘false
now the Villett Street car park, dawns’ the town has experienced
from the Brunel Centre to the top over the last decade or so. In Janu-
of Regent Street, opposite the in- ary there was the sense that people
formation centre. are starting to believe in what we
Modus will both own and man- are promoting and can see that our
age the whole development rather design has been well thought out
than building it with a view to and will make a marked difference
selling it off. to the town’s retail draw.”
Modus development director The Regent Place development
Neal Dale said he was pleased by is part of the New Swindon Com-
the reaction to the proposals. “The pany’s regeneration scheme for the
purpose of the January exhibition whole town centre.
was to demonstrate that we lis- www.modusproperties.co.uk
tened to suggestions made at the www.newswindon.co.uk

Looking down Regent Place towards the Brunel Centre

www.pagodapalace.co.uk

1 March 07 5 15/2/07, 1:43 pm