THE head of development at Newport Unlimited has sent an upbeat message about the city centre’s development, telling traders “we’re ahead of schedule”.
Paul Turling made the remarks at a meeting of traders last week at the Newport Centre, where a presentation was given about the potential creation of a business improvement district (BID) in the city.
Mr Turling, said: “We are at the stage we hoped to be at with John Frost Square.
“It’s going well and there’s an awful lot of interest in it, from retailers and restaurants.”
The president of Newport Chamber of Trade, Alan Edwards, told the meeting that the take-up of food outlets in particular had been very good.
Trying to allay fears about the lack of newnames committing to the centre, Mr Turling, said: “I appreciate it’s hard but it is not us being secretive or hiding things it is simply commercial confidentiality. Discussions are still ongoing and are going well but it’s a commercial process and that takes time.
“This project is far advance of where we were with Modus, we’re ahead of schedule and hope to have another announcement about a business which has signed up shortly.”
Mr Turling said the key now was for Newport to project an image of confidence about itself as that would give potential investors confidence.
He praised the positive attitude of the BID meeting and the proactive approach traders were taking.
“Meetings like this give investors and big players confidence that this is a good place to come and do business,” he said.
