Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister-company to Yorkshire Water, has secured planning permission from Leeds City Council to bring forward a 265,000 sq ft mixed-employment development, with the potential to deliver some 500 new jobs, on a vacant 16-acre site in the Aire Valley area of Leeds.
Keyland has appointed Gent Visick to bring the strategic site to market and Gent Visick’s Leeds team is now inviting interest in the site.
Situated off Pontefract Lane between the existing Cross Green Industrial Estate and the Leeds City Region (Aire Valley) Enterprise Zone, the site sits between Leeds City Centre and J45 of the M1 motorway, giving access to the M62 motorway as well as a direct link into central Leeds.
The planning permission strengthens the site’s importance in the wider vision for the Leeds Aire Valley and the consent will enable a purchaser to create a prosperous new employment hub, to be accessed directly off the A63 East Leeds Link Road Thornes Farm Roundabout. The approved scheme provides an indicative masterplan with 265,000 sq ft of B1, B2 and B8 industrial and commercial space configured in 8 units ranging in size from 20,000 sq ft up to 60,000 sq ft to reflect market demand. The proposed building plots have been sited to maximise potential occupiers’ exposure to the 480 m frontage to the A63.
Peter Garrett, Managing Director of Keyland Developments Ltd, said; “We are pleased to continue our track record of 100% planning success with consent to regenerate a strategically important site in the Leeds City Region. This 16-acre site is ideal to contribute towards meeting the well-documented shortage of industrial accommodation in this area. The site, with its proximity to both the motorway network and Leeds City Centre, has all the right components to attract occupiers and as such we anticipate keen interest from a range of parties seeking to bring the development forward.”
Rupert Visick from Industrial Property specialists Gent Visick added; “We’ve received a lot of interest in the site from the moment the planning application was lodged. The Aire Valley has rapidly become a location of regional significance and strategic importance to the distribution and last mile sectors which, when combined with the well documented lack of stock in the area, will see this interest being converted into a sale quickly”.
The site will be extensively remediated as part of the proposals and improved significantly by the provision of intermittent landscaping between the various plots with more significant landscaping featuring towards the south-eastern corner of the site.
Keyland’s design team included Lichfields as planning consultants, Enjoy Design for masterplanning and design, Wardell Armstrong as environmental consultants, Andrew Moseley Associates for Transportation & Highways, Brooks Ecological for ecology and Gent Visick for commercial property advice.