Cinema, supermarket and fast-food restaurant set to move into £45million expansion at Dalton Park

The second phase of Dalton Park in Murton is moving on a pace as builders get set to allow tenants in to fit out the restaurants and cinema once the two main contractors finish their work on the scheme.

Recruitment for the 500 new jobs, which will be added to the 500 people who already work at the shopping outlet, will begin in coming months.

Cineworld, Morrisons and KFC are due to take the keys for their plots next month, while Pizza Express, Frankie & Benny’s and Prezzo will take on their properties in May.

A firm to run the hotel and pub on site is still to be appointed, with a petrol station also being built next to its entrance.

A non-food shop will also open in the same unit as Morrisons, with the new business expected to be open this summer.

The businesses will join a series of new signings for the outlet, including Skopes, a menswear firm, which opens this month, and Customise, which sells mobile phone accessories, which will open in coming weeks.

They will join Ernest Jones and Graham and Brown, which have opened recently in the centre, which opened on the former pit site in 2003.

Outdoor store Regatta has expanded with a move to a bigger store, as have Levi’s and McDonald’s.

Jerry Hatch, centre manager, said: “We’re delighted that building work on phase two is going to plan and look forward to major handovers in the next few months.

“As an extra boost to this significant year, we’ve enjoyed early strong sales, coupled with imminent key openings and extensions – all of which adds momentum and vitality to our customer offer.”

The phase two scheme began last May.