MORE than 100 new jobs are being created as a string of restaurants get set to open at a Dorchester development.

Wagamama, Pizza Express and Zizzi will be the latest businesses to throw open their doors at Brewery Square – and all three will be opening during one week later this month.

Andrew Wadsworth, director of Waterhouse, which is developing the site with Resolution Property, said it is a ‘very exciting’ time.

Pizza Express will be the first to open on Thursday, April 25, with Japanese restaurant Wagamama following on Friday 26.

Italian restaurant Zizzi will open its doors on Saturday 27.

Pizza Express and Wagamama are also holding preview evenings in the week running up to the official openings.

Mr Wadsworth said: “Each restaurant will be employing 40 or 50 people, so with the three of them, we are looking at around 120 new jobs being created.

“It is a very exciting time for Brewery Square right now, and I am pleased to see so much of it taking shape.”

The restaurants are the latest in a number of famous names to move into the county town, including Premier Inn last month, which employs 30 people.

Chicken restaurant Nando’s opened in January, and Carluccio’s Italian restaurant opened last year, along with the Odeon cinema. Shops are also expected to open soon in the next phase of the £100million development. Mr Wadsworth said: “Our retail openings will follow the restaurant openings, and we will be making announcements nearer the time.”

Dorchester town councillor David Taylor said the news was ‘fantastic’ for the county town.

He said: “I am really pleased to hear about this. “It is a great amount of jobs and it just shows once again that Dorchester is a place which is bucking the economic trend and that it’s a place to invest in.

“The developers have done a fantastic job with it so far, and as well as more employment, Brewery Square is bringing more custom into Dorchester from the surrounding area, and increasing the number of shops and evening entertainment that we, as a town, can offer.”

Phil Gordon, of Dorchester Business Improvement District (BID), added: “This is fantastic news. “We have known about the fact that a number of businesses are rolling out into Brewery Square, so it is all according to plan, but I think it is happening sooner than we expected.”