A £350m regeneration project is being planned for Bury town centre in Greater Manchester.

The majority of the 1.6 million sq ft (150,000sq m) regeneration area will be used for retail space, but there will be a 120,000sq ft (1,115sq m) leisure quarter featuring a 10-screen cinema, a 25-lane bowling alley, a bingo hall and eight family restaurants.

The cinema has been pre-let to Vue and the bowling alley to AMF, while one of the restaurants is already under offer to Pizza Express.

The project, to be known as The Rock, is the brainchild of Thornfield Properties, a private development company, which has received £300m of funding from Bank of Scotland.

Bank of Scotland’s head of investments in its joint ventures division, Bruce Anderson, said: “We are very excited to be funding this development for our partner Thornfield. It’s an important milestone in the regeneration of Bury town centre and a great project to be involved in.”

Laing O’Rourke has been appointed as contractor, and the project is expected to be completed by summer 2010.