Planning permission granted for restaurant quarter in Montague Centre

NewRiver REIT, the owners of The Montague Shopping Centre in Worthing have been granted unanimous planning permission by Adur & Worthing Borough Council to reposition its existing shopping centre into an modern restaurant quarter that is attracting the interest and demand from leading national restaurant operators such at Patissere Valerie, Prezzo, Nando’s, Bills, Byron and Cote Brassiere. NewRiver’s plans for the Montague Centre in Worthing form part of the company’s wider strategy to revitalise and improve its shopping centre assets through the introduction of increased food and beverage offers to increase footfall, dwell time and customer spend.

NewRiver’s planned investment seeks to provide six modern units specifically designed to meet the needs of modern operators. In addition to providing the new restaurants, NewRiver will introduce a new elegant branding for the Centre along with enhanced public realm with new paving, seating and landscaping.

This investment represents a real confidence in Worthing as one of the biggest single pieces of inward investment in the town centre in recent years with a total investment of £15m.

Stuart Mitchell, Director at NewRiver said, “We are delighted to have received planning permission to deliver this development, repositioning The Montague Centre into a high quality restaurant quarter which will feature top national restaurant operators revitalizing the town centre“

We have had great success in repositioning another shopping centre in Leamington Spa after creating a similar quality restaurant destination with national operators including GBK, Yo! Sushi, Las Iguanas and Nandos’, resulting in a significant uplift in footfall for the centre of 12% pa, increased dwell time and customer spend within the wider town.

Stuart Mitchell concluded, “Our visualisations of a transformed Montague Centre provide a very clear contrast to the current feel. We aim to create a whole new ambience with outside seating and retractable awnings. As a long-term investor in Worthing, working in partnership with the Council, we firmly believe that this will create an attractive and complementary offer and a major boost to the town centre catalyst for further investment, providing a great place for people to relax and take a break from shopping.”