A UNIQUE new indoor shopping centre in a former nightclub is set to open this summer.

Work has started on constructing 17 independent shops in the basement area of the building in Kingsway, Dovercourt.

The former Basement nightclub will become a cross between an indoor market and a mini mall, with a cafe and a roof terrace letting in light.

Steve Davies, managing director of Leonard and Davies Developments, said: “It’s all been stripped out and the new units are now being built.

“We have 17 new units going in plus the cafe - three or four of them are almost ready.

“We have a single corridor down the centre and on either side will be shop units with double doors and windows either side.

“They are three or four metres wide and four or five metres deep - there will be a couple of smaller ones and a couple of bigger ones.

“It is to give people the opportunity to get started, I want them to stay but it gives them a chance to try a business.”

Units will be leased with a minimum term of three months and are roughly set to cost about £100 a week, including Wi-Fi.

It follows a series of successful pop-up shops run in the town centre, which helped to launch local businesses by giving them low rates and rent.

Steve added: “All the pop-up shops really worked but when they have to start paying for business rates and full rents they can’t afford it.

“We are hoping all the rates will be free because of the size of them but we are in negotiations.

“The only thing extra they will have to pay is electricity on their own meter.”

It is hoped the first few shop units will be ready to view by potential businesses in the next month or two.

The whole project is hoped to be finished by Good Friday.

Planning permission was given for nine flats to be built above the market area, replacing a bingo hall.

Steve said: “We haven’t started that, all of my efforts are on Kingsway. When this is open and running we will look at that, but we’re not even thinking of that now.”