IT is the visionary £150m flagship development that is being billed as Southampton’s answer to London’s Covent Garden and is hoped to breathe new life into the city centre.

Rising from the ashes of the former Pirelli factory, landmark plaza Watermark WestQuay will boast new shops as well as restaurants, bars, a hotel, 240 apartments and a luxury 14-screen cinema, and will see 1,000 jobs created.

Yesterday the privately-funded project, which is the biggest commercial development in the city for nearly a decade, moved one step closer to becoming a reality after council bosses signed a legally-binding deal with developers.

It comes weeks after developers behind £500m Centenary Quay, the housing scheme on the former site of the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Woolston, signed deals clearing the way for construction to begin on 1,600 homes, ending fears that the scheme had fallen victim to the recession.

Housebuilding giant Barratt last year signalled it was planning to revive work on the stalled Admiral’s Quay development in Ocean Village, which was one of the first to be mothballed in the economic downturn.

Last night Cllr Royston Smith, city council deputy leader, described Watermark WestQuay as the “jewel in the crown” of Southampton’s developments – and said it could be completed by 2013.

“We have gone through all the processes and now we have signed the development agreement – it is as close to saying it is definitely going to happen as you could get,” he said.

“Watermark WestQuay will fill that gap between retail and restaurants, bars and nightlife that we lack in Southampton.

“The best bit is it will create 1,000 jobs with career paths for local people, which is great news.

“It is the jewel in the crown of the city’s major developments.

“Centenary Quay is still a vision which we are working very hard on but it will be five or six years yet before a spade touches the soil.

“Watermark WestQuay could be ready to go by 2013.”

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