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THE FURNITURE AND CARPET WAREHOUSE
Issue 05 30 May 2012
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New Prezzo for restaurant quarter
National restaurant chain sees potential in Market Place > Market Place
In Short Since Kettering Market Place was re-developed, interest in restaurant space has been positive, but few companies have been prepared to make the move, given challenging economic conditions. Now, Italian chain Prezzo has announced they are to move in - something that the council hopes will help regenerate the area. NATIONAL restaurant chain Prezzo has announced that it is to open a unit in Kettering Market Place, hopefully kickstarting the area as the town’s restaurant quarter. The confirmed interest from Prezzo follows the completion of construction work on the market place
buildings in June last year and a successful period in the run-up to Christmas that saw all 10 of the apartments let in just two months. The deal will see Italianthemed family restaurant open in Unit 2 of the council-owned restaurants this summer, and the first step in this process is the submission of a drinks licence. Paul Thomas, the officer responsible for regeneration activities in Kettering town centre said that although the news was clearly very positive, there was still a formal process to go through. Feedback on the restaurant units following completion of the building works had been consistently positive, with a number of national restaurant chains saying that they loved the building and its setting and
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could see real potential in the town, but there a nervousness about the national economy was affecting their investment decisions. Councillor Alison Wiley is responsible for the council’s finances, she said: “Following this feedback, Kettering Borough Council looked very carefully at how it could leverage investment into the town and came up with an innovative and attractive arrangement which we hope will secure a good return for the taxpayers of the Borough” “It is typical of Kettering Borough Council that we have brought such commercial thinking to the letting of the restaurant units and we are overjoyed that this has proven successful in attracting an operator of Prezzo’s quality” Prezzo spokesman Eddie
MARKET PLACE: The site for the new Prezzo restaurant - Kettering’s place to be Gershon said: “When we came to Kettering and saw the town and understood the borough council’s vision for the town we were immediately excited by the potential of the area. Then we saw the unit that Kettering borough council had designed and built and we knew we had to be here. We look for-
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ward to a long and fruitful relationship with the town” Leader of Kettering Borough Council, Russell Roberts is excited about the imminent arrival of Prezzo: “There is no doubting the fact that we took a risk when we decided to reinstate the market place buildings. However, we have built
something that respects the historic setting of the market place and parish church, that has proven itself as somewhere that people want to live and now, to have achieved our dream of attracting a national restaurant chain to Kettering; it’s just incredible. In the teeth of a recession, this is great news.”
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