Students to get taste of high life in £25m tower

A 21-STOREY tower providing accommodation for students is set to be built in Leeds city centre, it was revealed yesterday.

Property group Downing has received planning permission for the £25m development which will include 404 bedrooms.

Work is due to start on site in early 2013, and it should be completed the following year.

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The building forms the second phase of Downing’s Central Village student accommodation scheme, which lies between Woodhouse Lane and Calverley Street in Leeds.

The £40m first phase of the mixed-use development is due for completion in September.

Downing recently agreed a six-year lease with Leeds University for the 577-bedroom student accommodation which is part of the first phase of the Central Village development.

Paul Houghton, development director at Downing, said: “We’ve been active in Leeds for a number of years and we know that there is a robust student market here that demands quality, city centre accommodation.

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“The ambitious nature of our Phase 2 plans, plus the pre-let for Phase 1 is testament to that.”

Liverpool-based Downing is also behind the Broadcasting Place development, which was named Best Tall Building in the World by a global panel of architects and engineers in 2010.

The £50m complex alongside the inner ring road in Leeds includes a 23-storey tower and provides student flats, offices, art studios and lecture halls for Leeds Metropolitan University.

Built on the site of the former BBC studios, the building was constructed using CorTen steel – also used to create Antony Gormley’s iconic Angel of the North sculpture at Gateshead. Over time, the metal oxidises to form a weather-proof outer layer.

Contractor George Downing Construction is building the Central Village scheme, which was designed by architects John McAslan & Partners.

Full story: Business Thursday Page 5.

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