THE firm behind the redevelopment of the Royal William Yard (RWY) has been in talks with more restaurant operators following the success of the Yard's £250,000 Seco Lounge.

Urban Splash, which is turning the former naval victualling yard into flats and business space in a £110million project, is also looking to attract boutique hotels to the 15-acre site.

The new Seco Lounge restaurant only opened in March but took £23,000 in the first full week of last month, making it the best performing eatery, for takings, of the Loungers chain's 13 restaurants.

The success has attracted other operators and Urban Splash's associate director Emily Jones said: "We are speaking to a number of restaurateurs.

"People were nervous before the Seco Lounge came in," she added. "The Lounge is constantly full and trading very well, and should provide confidence for any restaurateur that has been considering the RWY as an opportunity."

There are six units, ranging from 1,500sq ft to 4,700sq ft, in the Brewhouse and Mills Bakery buildings, which could be used as restaurants.

Miss Jones said it would be good if an operator moved in before the summer, but said that with the time it takes to fit- out a restaurant, this was unlikely.

She said the yet-to-be-developed Melville building has been earmarked for a hotel in the long term, but there will be opportunities for smaller boutique hotels or service apartments, to open in the Mills Bakery and Brewhouse buildings sooner.

She said apartments which are rented out by Urban Splash could be 'packaged up' to provide such a facility.

"We have just started to think about it," she said. "It would be great to provide the amenity, to stay the night in a boutique environment that Plymouth does not have yet.

"The big boys we are talking to in the restaurant world ask if people can stay here and I would like to say 'Yes'."

Leanne Forshaw, Urban Splash's communications manager, said: "The yard is not just about flats for sale but about where businesses want to locate — we are interested in speaking to those businesses."

Andrew Pearce, a partner at property consultants King Sturge, marketing commercial space in the RWY, said 55 per cent of the Mills Bakery's 33,600sq ft of office space was already let, with another 25 per cent under offer.

He said: "The RWY is really a unique opportunity on an international stage.

"It is the only speculative office development being undertaken this year by the private sector in Devon.

"Where else can you get offices of this quality with all the support facilities with are so important to businesses and their staff?"