Student accommodation scheme that came to a halt could resume
A MAJOR development that came to an abrupt halt in Leeds two years ago after contractors went into administration is set to start again.
Vita Leeds 2, part of the Select Property Group, which has projects across the world, has revealed plans for student accommodation on the site, which had been earmarked for a Hilton Hotel in the flagship arena quarter of Leeds – before the contractor went into administration, leaving a half-started concrete shell on site.
The new set of proposals, being put to planners at Leeds City Council on Thursday before a formal application is submitted, will see the original 14-storey shell increased to 16 floors to cater for 312 student studio apartments with amenity, retail and office units on the lower levels.
The Select Group acquired the site, at Portland Crescent and Woodhouse Lane, after stakeholders involved in the Hilton plan failed to find a financial solution which would enable the hotel to go ahead.
Should planning permission eventually be granted for the purpose-built student block, the developer says it will start work on site immediately.
Coun Neil Walshaw, who represents the city’s Headingley ward and sits on the City Plans panel, said: “There has been a lot of frustration and who would have thought that the Hilton Group could have got its contractors so wrong? The application is potentially very interesting and I am pleased to see it coming forward. It is not a bad location for that kind of thing and this is an opportunity for us to have our say. Speaking as a Headingley councillor, the more purpose-built student accommodation we have the more it frees up private housing.”
Permission for a part six-storey and 14-storey 246-bed hotel was granted in 2009. Work started towards the end of 2013 with GB Building Solutions but ground to a halt in March 2015 when the building contractor and parent company went into administration.
No one from the Hilton Group was available for comment.