FIFTY five jobs will be created with the arrival of a fast-food restaurant on Teesside.

Pizza Hut is opening a 136-seater restaurant at the £60m Middlesbrough Retail Park in the town centre, this week.

The £500,000 premises, built near a 2,500-seater, four storey multi-screen cinema and shops, will be open 12 and a half hours every day of the week.

Development of the retail park on the site of former town centre car parks has enjoyed mixed fortunes.

An early blow to plans was the collapse of the South African-based fitness group Healthlands and with it, a seven-figure loss for developers Highpoint Estates.

The park now boasts a national sports chain, JJB, with a gymnasium and pool on the ground floor and a sports shop about to open on the first floor.

Another high street name, elsewhere in the UK, Choices Video, will complete the scheme with a DVD, video and computer game centre.

McDonald's has been operating from the site since the cinema opened.

Highpoint is hoping to announce before Christmas a business for the 7,000sq ft of available retail space between the cinema and JJB.

Mark Warrior, of Highpoint, said there are "quite a few names'' interested in taking over the empty space.

He said: "The new park is looking good, it fits our prospective. From the company's point of view it is a major investment in the town."