Milestone as TCS completes its £70m flagship

​The Merrion House milestone completes TCS’s £70m, ten-year development and improvement project for its largest single asset, the Merrion Centre, of which Merrion House forms a part. The project has also been TCS’s largest development scheme and one of the largest ever pre-lets in Leeds.​

The building is jointly owned by TCS and Leeds City Council under a unique long-term partnership and represents one of the biggest public and private sector partnerships agreed in recent years.

​With 170,000 sq ft of office space, Merrion House will be the main city centre office base for Leeds City Council, housing over 2,100 staff when ​it is ​fully occupied later this year.

Chairman and ​c​hief ​e​xecutive of TCS​ ​​Edward Ziff said:​ ​"The redevelopment of Merrion House and public-private partnership approach between Leeds City Council and Town Centre Securities has been hugely successful and we are proud to be assisting the ​c​ouncil as it evolves its services and delivers significant operational cost savings.

"Merrion House forms a key part of our multi-million-pound investment and regeneration of the Merrion Centre and the wider Arena Quarter."

A​nalyst ​Kieran Lee​ at Liberum said: ​"This completion represents the last significant project in the £70m redevelopment of the Merrion Centre in Leeds town centre which has seen the anchor Morrisons superstore extended, the introduction of new leisure units fronting the Leeds Arena, a new Ibis Styles hotel and a complete refurbishment of the car parking facilities.

​"​Town Centre ​S​ecurities offers exposure to the fast-growing Manchester and Leeds markets together with significant development optionality at its large Whitehall Riverside and Manchester Piccadilly development sites, together capable of facilitating ​more than one million​ sq​ ​ft of new ​o​ffice/​ private rented sector​ space.​"​

T​CS​ reported good progress in its financial half​ ​year ended December 31 and strong trading at its Merrion shopping centre.

The Leeds-based firm said that over the past few months it has undertaken more asset disposals​ and​ been appointed development and joint venture partner with Leeds City Council in a key new scheme​.

TCS has been selected by ​the council to develop a major new scheme in George Street, Leeds that will deliver a 117-unit aparthotel with a further nine commercial units.

The firm said it had continued to make good progress in the on-going strengthening and improvement of its portfolio and in the CitiPark car parking operation.

Its ibis Styles hotel in Leeds, which opened in April 2017 and is operated under a management agreement, has performed strongly in its first nine months of trading, the company said.

At the Merrion Centre,​ TSC has​ increas​ed​ the total available space, bringing in new retail brands and becoming a key component of the newly-created Arena Quarter surrounding the First Direct Arena.