Mander Centre entrance revamp

Wolverhampton's Mander Centre is to get a striking new entrance linking it to the new Summer Row shopping complex.

Detailed new plans reveal how developers plan to connect the city's current biggest shopping mall to the £300m new centre.

This new artist's impression shows how department store TJ Hughes will get a new glass frontage looking out onto the new development as part of the Mander Centre is cut away. The city's Tesco store will be demolished to make way for the new look entrance, which will come complete with a new cafe-filled square.

But supermarket bosses are in talks with Multi Development about the possibility of moving into Summer Row.

It has also been revealed that an 11-screen multiplex cinema will definitely be forming part of the plans.

This will be created inside the iconic building to be built on the junction of Snow Hill and Cleveland Street, which developers say will be more impressive than Birmingham's unusualSelfridges building.

Stephen Alexander, head of development control at Wolverhampton City Council, said: "It will be better than the Selfridges building because that is simply a big shop. Summer Row's iconic building will have a mix of uses and will have more activity around it and will create a real statement for the city."

The detail has been revealed in a new planning application from Irish-based Multi, which will be decided in the next few months.

The development is hinging on the outcome of a planning inquiry, and an inspector is due to give his verdict on a Compulsory Purchase Order on several city centre streets to make way for the development.

Independent businesses around Cleveland Street, Temple Street, Worcester Street and Victoria Street are still trading, and many say they do not want to be forced out from their current buildings.

But head of regeneration at the council Steve Boyes said the council and Multi were working with traders and owners to try and relocate their businesses elsewhere in the city.