How Sheffield's Jerry Cheung wants to create a gateway between China and Yorkshire

Ever since Jerry Cheung arrived in Yorkshire from his native Hong Kong he has harboured a passion for both destinations, along with a desire to connect them.

The businessman and developer refers to his birthplace as his biological mother and Sheffield as his adoptive mother and has maintained links with the pair throughout his life.

Mr Cheung is the driving force behind the city’s New Era development.

Based around student accommodation, business facilities, retail and food and drink, it has brought new life to a part of the city which had at one stage been considerably dilapidated.

Unlike other Chinatown developments in the UK however, New Era does not feature dragons and archways one normally associates with such developments.

And for Mr Cheung, New Era represents something more than a commercial development. It is his hope that the project will act as a gateway between Yorkshire and the North with China and herald in a fresh period of Sino-UK relations and investment.

“I would like Sheffield to connect with enterprise from China and create more businesses,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“We all understand China will never be like the UK and the UK will never be like China.

“But there are good things there, there is a strength from the China side and UK side. People like me know both strengths, Combining the two we can create businesses that have a very big competitive advantage.”

It is here that Mr Cheung’s skill set and connections come into play. The investment into New Era has been sourced from China and he maintains strong links with a range of contacts in the country.

Part of New Era’s offering includes a Chinese-UK business incubator and, as China’s economy grows and the nation becomes an increasingly dominant player in more and more sectors, he believes strong links to the market can lift Sheffield’s economy.

“Personally, I would like to be an ambassador and a bridge to help Sheffield and Yorkshire to connect with Chinese enterprise. If China is my biological mother, the UK is my foster mother.

“I have spent most of my life with a foster mother. I would like to be an ambassador between my two mothers, to bring more business here and create jobs.

“The more jobs, the more livelihoods improve. And I would like to see more commercial activities. In Manchester and Leeds you have the big designer labels. We don’t have that in

Sheffield and it would be lovely to have that in our city centre, along with more office space.”

New Era has not been an overnight success for Mr Cheung. He first conceived of the idea in 2005 and has had to contend with the financial crisis, recessions, Brexit and now the pandemic during this period.

The latter crisis knocked the final stages of the project off course by a few months but he remains confident it will be up-and-running and fully let by September. And he believes that the diversity of its offering will not only prove sustainable but a “magnet” for fresh successes.

“One element is the square,” he said.

“The next is the business element that pays for it along with the student accommodation. But the third one is the China UK business incubator. I have spent a lot of time on this. That office building can become a magnet for business to come to the base. Also it can become a magnet for any business looking at anything China-related to come to their base.

“It can become the gateway for China in Yorkshire and the North of England.”

Covid is not the only battleground Mr Cheung has been forced to contend with in recent times. The US/China trade war and the row over Huawei have soured the atmosphere of late for many business leaders.

“It is just a matter of time before it [China] becomes the number one economy. Its Parity Purchase Power has already passed America. They’re not just a big producer, they are a big spender. And they love to do business with the UK.”

New Era is Mr Cheung’s first foray into the world of development. Having arrived in Yorkshire in 1975 as a sponsored graduate in Mechanical Engineering he has worked in a number of different industries in Sheffield, including steel and hospitality.

He has served as the chairman of the Sheffield Chinese Community Centre,a deputy lieutenant for the region and as an advisory board member for the business school at Sheffield Hallam University.

Throughout his working life he has harboured a passion for helping people from the place of his birth to integrate and flourish in their adoptive homes and he sees New Era as part of this mission.

“In my childhood, my mum and dad were cooking rice every night,” he said.

“Because of their working routine they were not integrated into everyone else’s routine. On evenings when people were out drinking and having a good time they were cooking in the kitchen. And because they went to bed late they would get up late. They were quite cut off and always had a passion to integrate them. When the time came, I did not want to join the food trade. I studied to be an engineer.”

The development is something that Mr Cheung hopes will allow Sheffield to compete on the same level as other major Northern cities.

He fears the city is “slightly behind” the likes of Leeds and Manchester but he sees a clear pathway for Sheffield hitting new heights.

He said: “In Sheffield we have the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre. That is something we can be very proud of and that is one of our real strengths. Our creative industries are doing quite well. We certainly have the quality graduates, from both the universities. That is very important.

“We have a lot of quality office space, the environment is fantastic and the living quality is right at the top. It has a lot going for it.

“But we need to have more start-ups, more business, have more company headquarters here, create more jobs because once you kick off and reach a certain level it becomes like a snowball.”