National brands boost restaurant offer at Middlesbrough’s Centre Square

Two national restaurant chains have signed up for space at the Centre Square scheme in Middlesbrough.

French-style dining brand Bistrot Pierre will occupy a 4,080 sq ft ground floor unit below the Holiday Inn Express Hotel, on the Albert Road frontage of The Cleveland Shopping Centre.

Turtle Bay, the Caribbean inspired eatery, opened at the end of April in the former Walkabout unit on the corner of Albert Road and Corporation Road, overlooking Centre Square and the Town Hall.

Letting agent Richard Wilson, of Middlesbrough-based commercial property consultancy firm Dodds Brown, said: “We were instructed by Ashall Projects, the developers of the Holiday Inn Express, to find a high quality restaurant operator to sit alongside the new Hotel.

“National chains had bypassed Middlesbrough in the past and it was clear to us we had to overcome this prejudice and also develop a new destination.”

He added: “We were able to put together a compelling case to show what a great location this could be for a new restaurant quarter for the town.”

Bistrot Pierre will open at Centre Square in July.

Richard Shuttleworth, from Leeds-based leisure agents Pudney Shuttleworth, acted for both operators in the deal.

He commented: “This location on Centre Square was by far the best site we considered and will be the hub of the Town Centre, and I am sure more major brands will follow.”

Big changes are due to transform Albert Road in the near future, including the 21-room expansion of the Holiday Inn Express and the development of Centre North East into over 300 residential apartments, a first-floor bowling alley and 17th-floor ‘sky bar’.