The Light goes on in Trinity
| The Light Cinema is to open a nine-screen facility within a new leisure-focused extension at Trinity Walk in Wakefield after agreeing a deal with Orion Capital Managers and Sovereign Centros.|
The extension, which is due to be completed in 2018, will also feature six restaurant units ranging from 1,500 sq ft to 9,063 sq ft, of which two are already under offer to national brands.
A planning application is due to be submitted this autumn.
The nine-screen cinema is the 12th to be developed under The Light Cinema brand.
Located in Wakefield city centre, Trinity Walk offers 559,000 sq ft of retail space and houses more than 60 brands. It is anchored by Debenhams, Sainsbury’s, H&M, Next and JD Sports, with an annual footfall in excess of 11 million and growing.
Keith Pullinger, chief executive of The Light Cinema, said: “We are delighted to have secured this space in the exciting extension to Trinity Walk Shopping Centre, which will add a much needed leisure offer to the town centre.”
Richard Low, head of retail at Orion, added: “Trinity Walk is doing really well with lots of exciting new lettings in recent months, as well as increased footfall and spending. The leisure development will give consumers another reason to come to TW, stay longer and spend more.”
Savills and AGL represented Orion Capital Managers and Sovereign Centros and are also retained as the retail letting agents at Trinity Walk.
The Light Cinema was founded by Keith Pullinger and John Sullivan six years ago. Both men have extensive experience in cinema and property development. We recently reported on The Light Cinema taking on the nine-screen cinema in The Moor Sheffield, part of a complex that will include Primark and other major retailers and food suppliers with a target opening date of May 2017. The philosophy behind The Light Cinemas is to offer something different to the multi-plex, blockbuster and popcorn experience. Mr Pullinger said: “We play all the big films but we also look to extend the range we offer to include films that might be popular with the local community. “We very much empower our local managers to think about the cinema as a local operation, and start thinking about what would work for that particular cinema. “We are very strong on event cinema, such as live broadcasts of theatre, opera and sports. We try to make it a really exciting evening. “The philosophy is to offer a really good quality cinema but keep the pricing at a sensible level and hopefully appeal to everyone.”
Trinity Walk is 500,000 sq ft partially enclosed shopping centre with over 55 stores and 1000 car parking spaces.
