Brexit fears fail to shake Leeds property market for TCS

Town Centre Securities (TCS), the property investment and development company, is currently working on its largest development programme in almost 50 years.

Earlier this year, Leeds-based TCS began work on a number of large development projects, and in a sign confidence for the commercial and residential markets, the company continues to add new projects to this pipeline.

TCS is currently on site with a 136-bedroom Premier Inn Hotel at Whitehall Riverside in Leeds, and the refurbishment of Merrion House offices at the Merrion Centre in Leeds. This project consists of refurbishing and developing offices in partnership with Leeds City Council, totalling approximately 170,000 sq ft when complete in early 2018.

Development also continues in the Merrion Centre with a new 134 bedroom Ibis Styles hotel and a Marco Pierre White restaurant scheduled for completion in the first half of 2017.

Edward Ziff, chief executive and chairman of Town Centre Securities, said: “It is clear that despite increased uncertainty in the wider economy following the UK’s vote to exit the European Union there are also opportunities.

“Town Centre Securities is a vastly experienced property investment and development company, and our ongoing strategy to recycle capital and dispose of investments where our asset management initiatives have been concluded, has placed us in a positive cash position to invest further and bring forward developments in our desired locations of Leeds, Manchester and London where we see opportunities to add both rental and capital value.”

As well as this development programme, TCS’s existing portfolio is experiencing ongoing success. The Merrion Centre, the company’s single largest asset, saw a 9.4% increase in footfall to 812,766 shoppers in July.

Edward Ziff added: “Since the development of the Merrion Centre in the 1960s, Town Centre Securities has been a market leader in creative and sustainable property development.

“This extensive development programme, the biggest that TCS has had ongoing in recent times, continues this trend and we are delighted with our outlook in the context of the Brexit landscape.”