With construction nearing completion the site's developers are preparing to hand the renovated properties to the eateries and businesses expected to debut when the arcade opens later this year.

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Notable among the newly unveiled businesses setting up shop in the redeveloped site is the city's first San Churro Chocolateria - marking only the second location for the franchise in the state.

The San Churro franchise will take one of the arcade's key street-side tenancies alongside the recently announced Body Fitness Training Gym and a small hole-in-the-wall Asian-style takeaway.

Designs for the new San Churro show the venue extending around and into Tatler Parade with laneway seating planned on the weekends. Meanwhile, a projection team is currently designing a system to project directly onto a white building facade across the laneway.

The wall had originally been earmarked for a mural but a projection setup has been favoured by developers as a unique and changeable focal point for the site, while also nodding to the much-loved cinema which was located at the arcade many years ago.

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Extending further down the laneway, the tenancy directly next to San Churro has been allocated for a new restaurant from the team behind Launceston's Monsoon Tapas Cafe & Restaurant in Princes Square. The restaurant is expected to deliver a similar Asian-tapas-style cuisine.

One door further down, Sweetbrew Espresso are putting together a triple offering, combining a cafe, a coffee roaster and a gin bar at the back half of the arcade, complete with a Melbourne-style laneway entrance concealed from the street.

Heading upstairs, the already-established Frida's Sip n Paint will be setting up full-time across from the development's only vacant - and perhaps most exciting - tenancy.

A large first-storey space has been designed by the site's developers with a new wine bar in mind.

But with an expansive balcony and outdoor seating area with views of St John Street and the laneway, it seems unlikely the space will be without a tenant for long.

It's been several years since plans for the site first hit the public and the developers had hoped to have the development open by September last year.

Following a series of delays related to the pandemic, the developers and debut tenants expect to cut the final ribbon sometime around May this year.

With the final pieces falling into place, spokesperson for the developers Anthony Loone said he was very pleased with the outcome.

"We think all the tenancies really work with each other and will help attract people to this precinct," he said.

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