Grimsby leisure and market scheme

Latest update

February 2025: Work has started on site

About the scheme

Major plans are underway to provide a new space for people to enjoy the town centre’s day and evening economy.

The planning application for a new market hall, a cinema and other leisure facilities at the Western end of Freshney Place was approved at the Planning Committee in February 2023.

The project will provide a leisure-led scheme for the centre of Grimsby town which incorporates a new market and food hall alongside new leisure and retail units and a new cinema.

The leisure development will house a new cinema, with local and regional operator Parkway Entertainment Group coming in as an anchor tenant and pledging to provide a great venue to complement its offer in Cleethorpes.

The plans also feature a remodelled entrance to the centre, which will be lined with units for leisure and eateries, and an entrance to a new and transformed Market Hall.

Funding for the project has come principally from HM Government.

Work has now started on site, and updates will be shared through this page.

Frequently asked questions

Full Council has approved the build of the Freshney Place leisure scheme, food hall and complementary market (December 2024).

The leisure scheme is due to be constructed using the western end of Freshney Place, the area that is currently the Top Town Market Hall and some units on the Bullring, which will provide a new offering for the people and businesses in Grimsby town centre.

New 5-screen cinema, run by Parkway

So far, within the proposed scheme, a pre-let agreement is in place with local operator, Parkway Cinema, to bring a new five screen cinema to complement its offering at Cleethorpes. There is more confidence in the cinema sector, particularly amongst smaller operators who are able to provide a quality experience and to tailor their operations to fit local demographics and demands.

In December 2024, Richard Parkes, owner of Parkway Cinema said: “We’ve long discussed options for bringing a cinema to Grimsby, and reinventing Freshney Place is precisely the right approach. Town centres are not just about shopping – that doesn’t work anymore. We need to provide more reasons to visit and offer more things to do at more times during the day, and that’s just what we’ve signed up for – to bring that to Grimsby.

“We’ll be a living, breathing presence right in the heart of the town, with a new cinema open to and accessible to everyone alongside a new market hall and food outlets. It’s just part of something that will improve the whole town centre for a new generation, alongside the youth zone and other areas of the town like St James Square and the Riverhead.

Other leisure unit

There is a large second leisure unit that will be created next to the cinema. As with other similar developments, this is due to be offered as a leisure “box” and an operator sought. There are various interested parties, and discussions continue.

New retail units

Four new leisure, food and beverage, or retail opportunities, including a larger unit to-let are also in the scheme footprint, alongside four refurbished units within Freshney Place. One of the operators has already been announced – the return of Starbucks to the town.

New food hall and complementary market

The proposed development includes plans for a new, vibrant food hall together with an attached complementary market. This is sited on the area of the former BHS building.

The scheme has been costed in the region of £49.96 million.

Set in the context of global upheavals along with significant inflation in costs over the last few years across the construction industry, work has been going on in the background to “value engineer” the scheme with contractors – trying to find ways of reducing the overall cost of the scheme to ensure best value.

Some of these changes include, for example, using different types of finishes, altering layouts within some buildings to make utility connections easier, or changing the order in which work is done. All of this has taken time but ensures that the cost of the scheme is more certain.

Additionally, since the Council acquired Freshney Place, the net return has been around £3.5million. The ongoing position, including the leisure scheme, is forecast to remain positive.

The scheme will be predominantly funded through Government Funds, with additional public sector borrowing to support that.

Importantly, although the cost of this scheme has risen, it will not impact local Council Taxes as the additional borrowing will be repaid through the returns from the scheme and the income from Freshney Place itself.

Some of the Government funding received for the Town needs to be reallocated from the Green Skills Hub project. Additional funding will be sought to continue this project in the future.

The transformation of the western end of Freshney Place has now started: February 2025.

Work to create the Freshney Place leisure scheme, along with the new food hall and complementary market will get underway in earnest in early February 2025 when contractors will arrive on the site.

The first part of this will be the decommissioning of existing Top Town Market, ahead of the start of works to demolish the building.

A temporary market will be created within Freshney Place in the unit currently occupied by One Beyond, which is due to be vacated by April 2025. This unit is one of the end units that faces on to Riverhead Square, and has held a temporary market before. Once the unit is available, some work will be required before the temporary market can open to the public.

The Council has been talking with traders in Top Town Market since it started the plans for the scheme, and more recently on a one-to-one basis to understand traders’ business aspirations, talk through the various options available to them, and offer them a full support package to help them to transition going forward.

There are some other traders have chosen not to move to the temporary market for various reasons, and the cafes have not been able to be included within the temporary market space as they need special facilities, such as extraction, or seating areas. The council is talking separately with the cafes about other suitable spaces in the town centre, which can better accommodate their needs.