Yorkshire developer S Harrison gets green light for £23 million Edinburgh scheme

Yorkshire developer S Harrison has started 2015 on a high with approval by City of Edinburgh Council on plans to deliver new student accommodation and 11,500 sq.ft of retail and leisure space in the Scottish capital’s New Town conservation area.

The York-headquartered business recently completed a major mixed use scheme in Lichfield and is looking at further new schemes in Stratford upon Avon, Greater Manchester and the North East.

Harrison acquired the vacant 0.5acre site at 34b - 40 Haddington Place on Leith Walk in Edinburgh last year.

It was formerly part of Edinburgh’s original Botanic Gardens and until recently housed the Botanic Cottage which is currently being reconstructed at the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Last month, City of Edinburgh Council’s planning committee unanimously approved S Harrison’s mixed use proposal which will see 226 new student units constructed across five storeys above ground floor space which has been approved for retail, café and restaurant use.

The planning approval follows S Harrison’s recent success in winning outline approval for a £40 million scheme to provide 246 new homes and a new care home on land at High Stakesby in Whitby.

During 2014 Harrison used its strong financial position and cash reserves to acquire two new sites in York, for housing and retail development and a landmark 2.4 acre site in Leeds.

S Harrison chairman Martyn Harrison said: “We remain committed to our heartlands in Yorkshire and Humberside but there is clearly a demand nationally for the expertise we bring to the development process.

“We have strengthened the delivery team in 2014 and are exploring a range of opportunities, primarily across the North, covering a variety of sectors – hotels, leisure, student accommodation, retail and residential.

“The mixed use scheme in Edinburgh, on a challenging site within a sensitive area, is the kind of opportunity which plays to our strengths in design, planning and public engagement and which sees us deliver returns on sites which others may overlook.”