THE first two big name restaurants to open at Trowbridge’s St Stephens Place Leisure Park development will be Nando’s and Prezzo.

Both chains will open premises at the Legal and General-owned park, which will feature a seven-screen Odeon cinema, 80-room Premier Inn hotel and a range of restaurants, cafes and bars.

Nando’s will occupy a 3,020 sq ft unit with Prezzo taking a 4,384 sq ft space. In total there will be six premises available alongside the cinema and hotel.

The park will also include a 111-space car park and a landscaped river walkway. Tino Polledri, a retired restaurateur and chairman of the Trowbridge County Town Initiative, said: “I think it’s a good thing. They should be good companies to pull people in.

“Any development in Trowbridge has got to be a good thing for us. I think things are on the up in Trowbridge, I think people are feeling a bit more positive than they’ve been in the past and hopefully things are starting to move forward.”

David Baker, president of the Trowbridge Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Trowbridge Town Team, said: “It’s interesting it’s moving forward. Hopefully it will complement and widen the offering of Trowbridge as a place to meet and eat. We’re very excited about the new development bringing more people into the town from the surrounding areas, which I think is the key.”

Tim Russell, senior asset manager at Legal and General, said: “Nando’s and Prezzo set the tone for the kind of high quality, family-focused restaurant operators that we wish to bring to the town. Advanced discussions are ongoing with a number of other restaurant operators.”

He said the project is expected to be completed by October 2013 and things are progressing well with up to 100 tradespeople hard at work. The ground piling has been completed, ground slabs are being installed and the first stages of the steel frame have started to appear.