One of the UK's most established adult gaming centre operators, Noble Amusements, will see its Manchester Piccadilly Gardens branch close to make way for a new retail complex.
The transformation of the arcade into a Travelodge hotel, Waitrose supermarket and Nando's and Zizzi restaurants, will cost £10m and is set to get under way in the spring, with completion expected by summer 2013. The project comes after a family dispute following the death of one of the two Noble brothers who jointly owned the site and had the lease to run the ground-floor arcade.
After Michael Noble died in 2006, the £100m Noble Group was split between his widow Gill and brother Philip, meaning Gill became owner of the building freehold, while Philip became the ground-floor tenant.
In 2009, Gills firm Jolan Piccadilly said it planned to evict Philip's amusements business, Crossco, to make way for the hotel, restaurants and mini-supermarket. Crossco applied to the High Court for an order to prevent it being kicked out until 2022. That was rejected, but Crossco took the case to the Court of Appeal. A trio of judges have now rejected the appeal.
Source: M.E.N
