A RUNDOWN area near a North-East city centre is to be transformed with a proposed £100m regeneration scheme.

Details have been revealed of the Sunniside Partnership's 15-year plan to breathe new life into an area to the east of the modern commercial centre of Sunderland.

The plans feature the redevelopment of many Edwardian and Georgian terraces which have become delapidated.

The terraces are in what is the city's largest concentration of listed buildings.

Plans already exist to redevelop the former West Sunniside Post Office, creating apartments, offices and possibly a restaurant.

Sunniside Partnership director Ian Wardle said he hoped many other schemes would be put forward during the course of the project.

"We are targeting £100m for investment over the 15 years lifespan.

"We want to bring new jobs and new homes to the area and make it a real leisure attraction for people from the rest of Sunderland and beyond.

"There are more than 100 listed buildings, two conservation areas and some lovely buildings and gardens right in the middle of it.

"Five years down the line we would like to see a lot more people living and working there.

"The appearance will be transformed, it will be more vibrant and diverse. A lot of the dilapidation there will be gone and there will be a lot more to see and do."

Mr Wardle said he hoped the advent of a new multiplex cinema, Sunderland's first, as part of a larger leisure complex, would provide a springboard to attract other amenities to Sunniside.

He said the scheme was not dissimilar to the Grainger Town Project which proved a success reviving many of the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian streets in Newcastle city centre.

The partnership is a collaboration led by Sunderland City Council, and regional and city regeneration bodies One NorthEast and Sunderland arc.