Newport's £90m Friars Walk shopping complex opens

Newport's multi-million pound new shopping centre has opened, in what is seen as a landmark for the city centre's regeneration.

Friars Walk has been years in the planning and the development ground to a halt in the 2008 financial crisis.

Now it is opening with Debenhams as its anchor store and retailers such as Marks and Spencer moving back.

Newport Council lent the developers £90m in a commercial deal to ensure the centre opened on time.

Council leader Bob Bright said there had been a renaissance over the last decade and people "underestimated Newport".

As well as 30 new shops, there will be about a dozen restaurants and an eight-screen Cineworld multiplex cinema.

Welsh fashion designer Julien Macdonald opened the Debenhams store.

Newport Council borrowed £90m at a lower rate of interest and then lent it on to the developers in a "calculated risk" to ensure the project was built.

"Everything in life is risky but we were at an impasse when the developer was unable to raise the funds in the money markets because of the interest rates," said Mr Bright.

"We took the innovative step of using public money to develop Friars Walk."

Fashion designer Julien Macdonald opened the Debenhams store

"We didn't do it blindly, we will make a profit on the financial deal of several million pounds and we have a negotiated agreement where we will participate in the profit when the centre, as I believe it will be, is sold eventually.

"It's a commercial deal with is good for Newport and it will make a profit."

The complex is estimated to create 1,200 jobs within its shops and restaurants.

Queensberry Real Estate started building the development in April last year.

The team at TGI Fridays welcome the new development by performing a Haka

Bob Evans, who runs the Waterloo pub and restaurant near the dock gates, said he hoped it would benefit the whole city.

"It's been really hard but Newport is up and coming now. This is good for Newport, it will bring in lots of people who currently go to Cwmbran or Cardiff to shop and bypass us."

Conservative shadow business minister William Graham's family surveying firm has history going back to 1844 in the city centre.

He added: "It will provide the impetus for Newport city centre to re-emerge as the both the premier retail district in this region and the centre for social and cultural entertainment".

First Minister Carwyn Jones (far left) joined council leaders for the opening

Bob Evans said he expects some competition from the new food outlets