Green light for massive £350m Leeds scheme

Developer CEG has signed a Section 106 legal planning agreement with Leeds City Council for a six acre site off Globe Road and Water Lane, in the heart of the city’s South Bank.

The site is earmarked for a £350 million sustainable mixed-use development on a patch of land that has historically seen planning permissions granted but not built out.

Work will commence next month demolishing the former warehouse on Water Lane and preparing the site for development.

The proposals will deliver a new location for the south west of the city centre with up to 750 new homes, workplaces, shops, cafés and restaurants.

It is expected that the scheme will create thousands of new job opportunities, with buildings ranging from five to 40-storeys.

A programme of archaeological excavation will uncover whatever remains on the site which housed John Marshall’s (king of the flax industry) first two Mills in this area of Holbeck in the eighteenth century.

CEG has already invested £300,000 into securing the Grade II listed bridge which formed a historic route for the Marshall empire and will once again form a physical link over the Hol Beck waterway, connecting Water Lane and Marshall Street to the new development at Globe Road.

The Marshall family also masterminded the construction of the nearby Grade I listed Temple Works buildings, which the CEG group acquired early this year. This site had been initially earmarked for a new factory for Burberry until they pulled out last year.

The company has appointed a technical team, including specialist engineers, heritage architects, surveyors and health and safety advisers. An intensive programme of assessment and stabilisation works is underway and more is now understood about the building’s history and condition than ever before.

Jon Kenny, Strategic Development Director of CEG, said: “Our proposals for South Bank bring together the birthplace of the industrial revolution in Leeds; the home of Marshall’s first two Mills, as well as the Marshalls’ last, and greatest creation, Temple Works. This is an exceptional opportunity to breathe life back into these, creating locally and nationally important iconic landmark buildings and innovative public spaces. This is not just about building on a historic legacy; it is about creating a new one.”

CEG has now started marketing its South Bank development, which now has detailed planning permission for two office developments with ground floor retail and leisure totalling up to 26,100 sq m and outline planning permission for mixed-use development of up to 103,900 sq m of offices, retail, leisure, hotel, health, education and community uses, parking and up to 750 new homes, along with new public spaces and landscaping.

David Hodgson, head of strategic development north for CEG, said: “Many years of hard work are being realised as we launch to market an exceptional opportunity for the highest quality office developments just minutes from Leeds City Station.

“This, along with the retail, leisure, hotel, residential and community uses, benefitting from innovative outdoor spaces and the waterfront, will bring a strategic development of a critical mass and international standard, putting South Bank Leeds on the map as a place to live, work and enjoy.”

CEG is committed to the city and is currently delivering a ground-breaking £400 million brownfield regeneration scheme at Kirkstall Forge, where a new station and the first flagship 110,000 sq ft office are now open with the latter being named last week as the best Commercial Workplace in the UK by the British Council of Offices (BCO).