A new £7m visitor attraction has been unveiled by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Teeside Environmental Trust (TET) at Saltholme, near Middlesbrough.

The 1,000-acre (405-hectare) wildlife reserve and discovery park has taken 11 years to develop, and its facilities include a visitor centre, a café, a shop and classrooms, as well as an adventure playground and an outdoor education exploration zone. Designed by architects Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall, the Wild Bird Discovery Centre was built by Lumsden and Carroll. It is hoped the site will attract more than 100,000 visitors each year.

RSPB site manager, Dave Braithwaite, said: "We can finally open the doors of the Saltholme centre and, while not everything is up and running, we are able to offer our first visitors a chance to see how we are already shaping up. "Throughout the year, regular visitors will be able to see the site develop, watch as our wildlife garden starts to mature and bloom, as the adventure playground with its castles and wildlife-themed swngs opens for the first time, and as we introduce more country walks, nature hides and other facilities."

It is hoped that half of the visitors will be from outside the local area, while the reserve plans to spend £40,000 a year with local firms on maintenance and security, as well as locally sourcing food to be served in the café. TET's David Kitchen added: "The opening of the wildlife reserve and discovery park is the end of an 11-year journey for Teeside Environmental Trust. We had a vision and now it has been achieved."