500 jobs to be created as new 265,000 sq ft Leeds development launches to market

Plans have been approved for a 265,000 sq ft mixed-employment development, with the potential to deliver around 500 new jobs, on a vacant 16-acre site in the Aire Valley area of Leeds.

Keyland Developments Ltd, the property trading arm of Kelda Group and sister-company to Yorkshire Water, secured the planning permission from Leeds City Council.

Keyland has appointed Gent Visick to bring the strategic site to market.

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.

The approved scheme provides a masterplan with 265,000 sq ft of B1, B2 and B8 industrial and commercial space configured in eight units ranging in size from 20,000 sq ft up to 60,000 sq ft.

The proposed building plots have been sited to maximise potential occupiers’ exposure to the 480m 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”.

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.