£7.5m start on site at Temple Green

Aire Valley Land LLP, a joint venture between Evans Property Group and Keyland Developments Ltd, has commenced work on site at its £96m, 165 acre Temple Green logistics hub within Leeds Enterprise Zone with a £7.5m infrastructure and groundwork programme.

Temple Green is the largest of 4 development sites located in the Leeds Enterprise Zone with planning permission for over 3m sq ft of developed space at J45 of the M1. Consent was recently granted for Phase 1 which includes Leeds City Council’s 10 acre, 1000 space park and ride transport interchange together with development plots totalling 10 acres for motor dealerships and petrol filling station with ancillary retail to service the park and ride users and nearby occupiers.

Leeds-based civil engineering firm, Hewlett Construction has been appointed to complete the road infrastructure and ground engineering works programme for Phase 1.   Once completed the main spine road will open up the 25 acre Phase 2 site which can accommodate up to 500,000 sq ft of industrial, advanced manufacturing, storage and distribution space which could generate some 700 jobs.

The £7.5m programme of works will involve the re-engineering of some 400,000 m3 of soil – enough to fill 3,200 London buses or 110 Olympic size swimming pools and 1 km of new dual carriageway road which will provide access to the Park and Ride, car dealerships and petrol station in Phase 1 as well as direct access to Phase 2.

The 10 month programme of works will conclude in August 2015, following which work on the park and ride facility will commence.

James Pitt, Development Director of Evans Property Group, said; “It is incredibly exciting to now be on site and to have started work creating Leeds’ largest logistics base.  Most importantly, we are now development ready and in a position to talk about delivery timescales with end users.”

Peter Garrett, Managing Director of Keyland Developments Ltd, continued; “A combination of EZ Capital Grant Fund from the DCLG and Growing Place Fund loan from the LEP, kick started delivery of this infrastructure and groundworks programme. The site’s scale and potential is immense and we can now demonstrate how major units of 500,000 sq ft can be accommodated within the phases.”

Alan Cooper, Managing Director, at Hewlett Construction, added; “Temple Green will undoubtedly become a flagship logistics base for the city and we are delighted to be undertaking the works to facilitate its development. The 10 month intensive programme will create a series of development platforms and our team is now on site undertaking the preparatory works.”