Portuguese piri-piri chain Nando’s has received permission from Stockton Council to open a second restaurant in Teesside Park later this year.
The new restaurant is planned for either December 2016 or January 2017 and will create up to 40 full-time and part-time jobs.
Work on the single-storey restaurant is due to start now, according to the Gazette Live. Currently used as a staff car park, the site in the corner of the retail park next to Outfit and Asda Living was formerly the garden centre area of the ex-Homebase DIY store.
The new restaurant will be clad in black-stained timber and the plans include 49 staff car park spaces to the rear.
A statement which supported the planning application said: “Currently there is no restaurant space in this area of the park, which is served only by temporary kiosks offering a limited range of food and drinks.
“It is believed that the new development will have a positive contribution to the vibrant shopping environment with the food and beverage offer more appropriately located than that proposed in the alternative phase of the scheme.”
The Gazette Live noted that an application to open a Nando’s as part of a wider £7.5m hotel and restaurant scheme on the nearby site of the former Spring Health Club at Teesside Park was previously rejected by Stockton Council in 2012 due to “significant concerns” about the impact on Stockton town centre, and £20m of regeneration spending. An appeal against the ruling was rejected in 2013.
In the recent successful application, agents acting on behalf of Nando’s argued that the new development would not damage trade in Stockton town centre. A letter supporting the bid said: “There is no suggestion that the market for eating facilities at Teesside Park has reached saturation. “Whilst an element of trade would be new trips, these are unlikely to be diverted from Stockton town centre and their existence at Teesside Park would not preclude the establishment of similar facilities within or adjacent to the town centre.
“In such circumstances the refusal of the family restaurants at Teesside Park is not justified.”
Nando’s already operates one restaurant at Middlesbrough Leisure Park, off Marton Road. The outlet, which created 25 jobs when it opened in 2004, underwent a £250,000 makeover last year.
