It's all going swimmingly!

T he recession's impact on new development has created an opportunity for several start-up businesses in central Cleethorpes.

Less than a year after receiving instructions to market ten vacant units on Dolphin Square when a major retail proposal was curtailed by the economic crisis, the site is now fully let on a short-term basis.

Deals have been done that give traders at least three full summers to test their markets and build a business with affordable rents, while the private landlord awaits a better environment in which to build.

As reported, the site was bought from Mitchells and Butlers, owner of the bars that front it and are now separate, by East Midlands-based developer Sandicliffe as the economy boomed.

Anticipating the regeneration, ten of the 12 shops had been vacated when the economy nose-dived.

Lawrence Brown, a partner in Scotts, the commercial property agency that has offices in Grimsby and Hull, said: "Dolphin Square is seen as a key development site in the centre of Cleethorpes, but the deal fell through and the developer was left with very little income and ten empty shops.

"We were called in last summer and in the last 12 months we have let them all."

It has created a real mix in the two terraces along Market Street and High Street, with takeaway food, a sweet shop, tattoo parlour, BMX specialist, collectables outlet, mobility centre, as well as a beauticians, clothing, dance-wear, homeware and seaside memorabilia offerings. Completing the set is a holistics medicines venture that is soon to open.

Lucy Croft, also of Scotts, said: "All the units are let until September 2012, and the tenants have agreed to that.

"For them a Cleethorpes shop at the rent agreed is a really good opportunity, and if they are new businesses, and several are, it is a good chance to give it a couple of years to see if it works."

Mr Brown said: "For those businesses that are doing well, come next year and early 2012, that is when they need to start thinking of future business plans. It may be they are then looking at opportunities in St Peter's Avenue or down Sea View Street."

For Dave Scott, owner of Mainline, a BMX retailer that opened ten weeks ago, it is an ideal situation.

A regional champion in the Eighties, he has turned a passion into a business.

"It has been phenomenal," said Mr Scott. "We have had a really great response and the kids seem to love what we have.

"It is really different to what has been before."

And of the arrangement, he said: "It is good to be able to test this business for a short period of time. If it didn't work then I wouldn't have dropped myself in it too much.

"It is also about getting the name out there.

"The ultimate aim is to get a large unit, somewhere like Wilton Road, Humberston, where we could set up a BMX park for kids to use, to test the bikes too and have the shop there as well."