West Bar: First building in Sheffield’s £300m scheme handed to council in push to connect city centre with Kelham Island

A key building in Sheffield’s £300m West Bar development has now been formally handed over to the city council after reaching completion.
Leaders from Legal and General and Sheffield City Council gather on the terrace of No1. West Bar Square for the Building's formal handover to the authority.  Left to right: Ralph Jones, Managing Director of Peveril Securities, Sir John Kingman, L&G Group Chair, Kate Josephs, Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council, Andrew Kail, Chief Executive Officer, Institutional Retirement at L&G, Councillor Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council and Ben Rodgers, head of regeneration at L&G Asset Management.Leaders from Legal and General and Sheffield City Council gather on the terrace of No1. West Bar Square for the Building's formal handover to the authority.  Left to right: Ralph Jones, Managing Director of Peveril Securities, Sir John Kingman, L&G Group Chair, Kate Josephs, Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council, Andrew Kail, Chief Executive Officer, Institutional Retirement at L&G, Councillor Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council and Ben Rodgers, head of regeneration at L&G Asset Management.
Leaders from Legal and General and Sheffield City Council gather on the terrace of No1. West Bar Square for the Building's formal handover to the authority. Left to right: Ralph Jones, Managing Director of Peveril Securities, Sir John Kingman, L&G Group Chair, Kate Josephs, Chief Executive of Sheffield City Council, Andrew Kail, Chief Executive Officer, Institutional Retirement at L&G, Councillor Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council and Ben Rodgers, head of regeneration at L&G Asset Management.

No.1 West Bar Square, the new 100,000 sq ft Grade A office building, was handed to the council by project backer Legal and General.

The city council is now set to find occupiers for the building.

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The handover marks a milestone in the greater West Bar project, which developers say will support 6,000 jobs on completion.

The development will eventually be made up of one million sq ft of space, located between the city centre and Sheffield’s Kelham Island district, with office workspace totalling 500,000 sq ft.

Speaking on the Council’s progress in finding occupiers for the No.1 West Bar, Councillor Tom Hunt, leader of Sheffield City Council, said: “We’re having really positive conversations with potential occupiers for this building.

Employers are telling us that their employees want great places to work and enjoy themselves, in close proximity to each other, and that's why we’re working hard with our partners like Legal and General to make Sheffield city centre a great place to work, live and enjoy yourself.

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“What we’ve seen across the Heart of the City development in the centre is that when high quality office space is provided, there is strong demand, and we’re really seeing that strong demand across other parts of the city centre.

“That is also reflective of the strong growth that we’re seeing in our businesses based in the city right now.” No 1 West Bar is the first building in the wider development to reach completion.

As well office space, the West Bar development will also consist of two residential blocks set to provide 368 build-to-rent apartments.

Retail and leisure facilities, as well as redeveloped public realm space, will also form part of the project.

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One of the key aims of the scheme is to provide better connectivity for pedestrians between Sheffield city centre and Kelham Island. The site on which the West Bar development is situated previously consisted of brownfield land and ground-level car parking spaces.

Ben Rodgers, head of regeneration at Legal & General Asset Management, said: “We’re seeing a lot more of a drive towards sustainable ways of travelling around.

“So, pedestrian movement and actually connecting the city through that rather than roads is a really important thing.

“People don't want to go through an industrial hinterland to go from one place to another.

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“So having that public realm development here, as well as making it a really attractive destination in its own right, is important.

“That linking is key to driving success.”

Councillor Hunt added: “For a long time, there hasn’t been great connectivity between Kelham Island and the city centre.

“Time Out named Kelham as one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world.

“But because there was a physical gap between the area and the city centre, it has felt further away than it actually is.

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“Up until a couple of years ago, this was largely surface level car parks, and in a city centre that's not a very efficient use of land.

“We’re having a real push to connect up the city centre with Kelham, and West Bar completes that key linkage between the two parts.”

​The West Bar project is one of multiple major redevelopment schemes taking place in or near Sheffield city centre. The city centre’s Heat of the City scheme is seeing £470m of development across seven hectares of land, providing new retail and leisure space. Developers say the project will create up to 7,000 direct and indirect jobs in the city by 2030. A major redevelopment of city centre street Fargate is also under way, as well as Castle Square.

Earlier this week, the council announced that South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, together with local leaders, had approved £21m of investment into the Connecting Sheffield: City Centre project. The funding is aimed at helping Sheffield City Council to improve public spaces and connect key developments including Fargate and Heart of the City.

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