New cinema coming to Rochdale

An impression of how the 'Rochdale Riverside' scheme, including cinema, might look

A new cinema, the first in the town centre in more than 20 years, is to be central to the leisure part of the town centre regeneration development, which will also feature restaurants and cafes.

Reel Cinema, which already has 15 outlets across the country, has formally signed to open a six screen, 20,000 sq ft cinema in the development.

Council Leader Richard Farnell said: "This is yet more good news for the town and a fantastic result for the new Rochdale East shopping centre.

"I'm cracking open the popcorn to celebrate.

"This latest key anchor - following the announcement by Next and the M&S super store - will attract even more retailers to our prestige development.

"We can look forward to restaurants opening around the cinema to capture the lucrative cinema goer trade.

"A town centre based cinema will attract lots more footfall and will be a real boost to the evening economy and the wider town centre.

"On top of all the other improvements, I'm confident that our town centre is going from strength to strength."

Chris Morgan Giles, of Reel Cinemas, said: “We’re delighted to be signing up to this exciting retail and leisure development, which will undoubtedly help reposition Rochdale and attract people to the town centre from a much wider area.

“Our operations in this region have recently grown significantly and as we are looking to continue to expand our business for the foreseeable future, Rochdale is an ideal place to do this.”

Reel cinemas have a tradition of supporting their local communities by running events and organising fundraising activities for good causes. Each screen will be available for private hire.

As well as the cinema, the new development, which will be called Rochdale Riverside, will comprise around 25 retail and leisure units and a 350-space car park.