Multi-millionaire Eddie Healey hopes to start work in autumn on his major central city leisure complex - and believes it will bring a massive jobs boost to Bradford.

Speaking for the first time since he won the right to develop the site he said today: "The most important thing for Bradford now is that something is going to happen and happen quickly."

Mr Healey - developer of Sheffield's huge Meadowhall shopping centre - plans a massive leisure centre including a 16-screen multiplex cinema and 100-bedroom family hotel on the site of the 600-space car park.

There would also be six restaurants and caf bars, a bowling and family entertainments centre and a health and fitness centre.

But Mr Healey says it is far smaller than the centre proposed for the site by Finnegans which fell through at Christmas.

He added that the Finnegan's scheme was "overdeveloped".

Mr Healey said: "I am absolutely delighted we have got Vicar Lane. We have been trying to do something in Bradford for 18 months."

He said contractors for the development would be picked from Yorkshire firms and there would be up to 700 jobs going during the building period.

An estimated 500 jobs would be created when the complex - expected to take about 18 months to build - finally opened.

Mr Healey said at least four possible tenants were interested in the cinema and two or three in the hotel. "You have a city centre that hasn't got anything. This will draw people into the centre and could be a catalyst for other developers to start work elsewhere - including Broadway."

He said his company - the Stadium Group - had put in the highest bid to the Council for the car park, believed to have been valued at about £6 million. The 600 spaces lost to motorists will be replaced with two car parks providing more than 1,200 places.

Mr Healey is in a partnership with Bradford Bulls for the redevelopment of Odsal Stadium - although he did not put an official bid in to the Council for his multi-million pound proposals.

The Council gave Horsforth-based Stirling Capitol the right to develop the stadium, after considering six major contenders.

Mr Healey said he had spoken to Stirling Capitol and said he would stand on the sidelines to see what happened but believed Stirling Capitol were the best choice the Council could have made.

"But my doubt is whether or not it is a viable proposition."

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