Sheffield’s new Lord Mayor, Councillor Magid Magid, saw how more than £400 million of regional investment has been ploughed into the Meadowhall district at a business breakfast.
The Lord Mayor, in one of his first engagements since appointed, praised the investment by IKEA, Meadowhall and ARBA Group and the overall transformation, which is revitalising the Meadowhall district and creating more than 2,000 jobs, as a cornerstone of Sheffield’s commercial offering.
He saw how key developments have been completed, and are in the pipeline, at Meadowhall, including the £300 million leisure expansion at Meadowhall Shopping Centre, the jobs and regional economic benefit of the flagship IKEA store and the creation of more than 70,000 sq ft of top-grade offices at Meadowhall Business Park.
The Lord Mayor spoke to 60 hand-picked business leaders from commercial property and legal professions at the event.
He said: “It is heart-warming in my first week of office to see at first hand how quickly Sheffield is developing as its own major centre for the North of England with such dynamic changes taking place at Meadowhall, complementing the transformation of the city centre through Heart of The City phase two.
“Recognising the value that Meadowhall Business Park, IKEA and Meadowhall Shopping Centre are adding to this city in terms of jobs creation and economic gain is massively important for ongoing investment and the future prosperity of the city.”
Mark Bruce, director of retail at Meadowhall Shopping Centre, highlighted the state-of-the-art 330,000 sq ft leisure hall extension due to go ahead and backed by owners British Land and Norges Bank Investment Management, which will create 1,400 permanent jobs on completion.
While Matthew Gallagher, retail sales manager at IKEA showcased the importance of Sheffield’s labour market and development potential as reasons IKEA chose the city as a key location recognising that “as the pace of development in Meadowhall and the city centre increase, so will inward investment”.
Property developers ARBA Group hosted the event to launch phase two of their development of Meadowhall Business Park, transforming five former city council office blocks into more than 70,000 sq ft of commercial space which has attracted new businesses to the area and sustained 500 jobs on completion.
Richard Burns, director at ARBA Group, said: “To have such a collective presentation of change for this region under one roof was frankly eye-opening.
“The event marks our launch of a further 22,500 sq ft of office space to the market, but the sheer numbers in terms of new jobs, accommodation for businesses and economic benefit to the city from the three key projects in Meadowhall is extraordinary and completely underpins why we took the opportunity to create a commercial hub in the centre of it all.”
Just two of the five refurbished buildings remain at Meadowhall Business Park with available suites from 3,750 sq ft to 15,000 sq ft plus on-site car parking.
Meadowhall Business Park is located opposite IKEA, less than one mile from junction 34 of the M1, two miles from Junction 33 of the M1, within six miles of the M1/M18 intersection and 25 miles of the M1/M62 intersection.
