University sells historic mansion in move which could create up to 100 jobs

The university is understood to have received £4.2m from the Greensville Trust for the 14-acre site of its business school’s former headquarters, which includes three Grade-II listed buildings.

The trust, an Islamic community group based in Liverpool, intends to convert the site, which includes the Heaton Mount and Emm Lane buildings, for mixed purposes involving community use, adult education, primary school and nursery care, as well as leisure and function spaces.

The site, acquired by the university in 1967, has been surplus since the School of Management moved into a modern building. Stuart McKinnon-Evans, the university’s Chief Finance Officer, said: “We are very pleased the Trust is taking over this site. The work they do complements the University’s own efforts to benefit the community.”

Emm Lane and the adjoining Sir Titus Salt building include a lecture theatre, restaurant, and atrium, while the second building, Heaton Mount, has a 42-bedroom hotel extension, professional kitchen, dining, and meeting facilities, as well as a further lecture theatre and a civil wedding license.

Greensville Trust chairman Mohammed Amer Siddiq said they hoped to create around 100 jobs in the coming years, adding: “It is our intention to become an integral part of the wider Bradford community and to maintain positive links with the university.

"We intend to be a good neighbour, partner and anchor organisation within the city of Bradford and by working alongside communities, partners organisations from other faiths and non-faith, public, private and community/voluntary organisations contribute towards nurturing a healthy, happy, culturally and economically vibrant Bradford.”