The latest restaurant to join Trowbridge’s St Stephen’s Place cinema development is expected to be announced next week.

The business will join chains Nando’s and Prezzo which will be occupying two of the six restaurant units on the site, which was unaffectionately known as Mount Crushmore after rubble was left on the grounds for years following previous unsuccessful building projects.

When complete, the £17m development will house a variety of eateries, a seven-screen Odeon cinema, an 80-bed Premier Inn hotel and a cafe.

Simon Russian, head of retail development at Legal & General Property, said: “We have got someone very interested in the big unit remaining on the site and should be able to reveal the name at the end of next week.”

Construction started last year, with a team of 85 people carrying out the building work which is expected to be completed in time for the half-term holidays in October.

“We’ve made some really good progress with this site and the improvements to Castle Place in the past three years,” said Tim Russell, senior asset manager at Legal & General Property.

“We won’t have any trouble filling the remaining restaurants, we have five units and five pitches from companies wanting to get involved.”

In early May, the cinema is expected to be handed over to Odeon allowing the cinema company to carry out its work on the building while the hotel and restaurants are expected to be handed over to tenants in August.

Lee Balfour, project manager, said: “All the feedback has been really positive and everyone is very happy that this is happening on the old Mount Crushmore site.”

The cinema development is part of the ongoing regeneration of Trowbridge, with Wiltshire Coun-cil last month granting permission for a £46m development of the former Bowyers site.

Councillors are also keen to see work carried out on the abandoned Peter Black site, which is opposite the Legal & General site across the River Biss. In preparation for someone developing the Peter Black site, Legal & General has put a base in for a bridge which could link the two sites.