Odeon announced as leisure anchor as development gears up at Thorpe Park Leeds

Left to right: Roger Marsh OBE of Leeds LEP, Kevin McCabe, Chairman of Scarborough International Properties, Cllr Judith Blake, Leader of the Council, Mark Jackson or Scarborough International Properties.

Scarborough International Properties has announced that ODEON is to become the leisure anchor for the new forthcoming retail and leisure park at Thorpe Park Leeds. It has also confirmed that Boots has agreed a deal to join the retail line up. These new lettings form part of phase two of Thorpe Park Leeds, which Scarborough is developing in partnership with Legal & General Capital (LGC), following LGC’s £162 million funding arrangement last year.

The announcement was made as Scarborough hosted a special event with GMI Construction to mark the start on site for the 300,000 sq ft park which opens next autumn. Guests were able to view progress on a specially built viewing platform with visitor plaques showing where occupiers will be located.

Next, M&S Simply Food, TK Maxx and the Outfit are also taking major stores at the 1.65 million sq ft phase two development at the celebrated East Leeds scheme.

ODEON has secured a 44,000 sq ft unit for a ten-screen cinema which is to be located adjacent to, and above the boulevard of restaurants within the leisure cluster at Thorpe Park Leeds. Currently there is no cinema complex serving the East Leeds community with the nearest located in the city centre.

Ken Taylor, Group Property Director at ODEON said:

“We have exciting plans to bring a fantastic cinema experience to the East Leeds community. ODEON in Thorpe Park Leeds will have state of the art screen and audio technology, our latest luxury seats, and our very best hospitality services. We look forward to finalising our plans and recruiting an energetic team who will give great service to our guests when we open.”

Boots has also agreed to take a 15,000 sq ft store next to M&S Simply Food at Thorpe Park Leeds. Boots is the UK’s leading pharmacy-led health and beauty retailer with over 2,500 stores in the UK.

A further five high street leisure operators are also close to securing space at Thorpe Park Leeds with legal agreements underway.

Mark Jackson at Scarborough International Properties which is developing phase two at Thorpe Park Leeds in partnership with Legal & General Capital said:

“We are thrilled to see that such high quality and popular brands recognise the appeal at Thorpe Park Leeds as a significant and growing community within the East Leeds district. Not only will they provided fantastic new facilities to the immediate businesses and 4,000 existing workers, but also serve the potential for a further 10,000 workers as well as the wider community.

“Our confidence to invest in phase two at Thorpe Park Leeds is proving successful as we work hard with our partners, the local authority and operators to create an exciting new destination with community, health, wellbeing, connection and enterprise at its heart.”

Rachel Dickie, Investment Manager at Legal & General Capital, added: “To have secured Odeon as the leisure anchor and added Boots to the retail line-up further demonstrates the quality and vibrancy of the offer that Thorpe Park Leeds is bringing to the East Leeds community. This second phase of development is set to support the wider Leeds economy, acting as a major catalyst for further investment.”

Andy Bruce, Managing Director or GMI Construction Group said, “Momentum is really building now at Thorpe Park Leeds as we progress this pivotal part of the project. We have been on site now for over two years progressing groundworks and as the structural elements for the retail and leisure part commence we have tripled our workforce to excel delivery for completion next year. We also have an engagement programme in place to support local employment and apprentice training on site and pride ourselves in ensuring that the communities in which we work benefit from our projects.”

Thorpe Park Leeds is already a well-established 800,000 sq ft business park with over 60 occupiers including IBM, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Atkins, BAM and National Grid.

Phase two is now underway delivering a further 1.65 million sq ft of mixed use accommodation. This includes an additional 940,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation alongside the 300,000 sq ft shopping and leisure park, as well as extensive parkland and sports facilities. Redrow has also purchased a part of the site and announced plans to build 300 new homes.

‘Paradigm’ is the first of the new office buildings to be completed and is available for immediate occupation. It offers 31,650 sq ft of exceptional business space set over three floors with an additional feature floor and roof terrace directly overlooking the M1. Strong interest has been reported from a number of prospective occupiers and further office building projects are planned later in the year.

Phase two at Thorpe Park Leeds also includes delivery of the first section of the ‘East Leeds Orbital Road’, a key piece of infrastructure connecting north and east Leeds to Junction 46 of the M1. This road will unlock land for the construction of up to 7,000 new homes in the East Leeds area, land that is either already allocated in the Local Plan or which is ‘brownfield’.

Thorpe Park Leeds won the coveted ‘Best Deal’ Award at the Yorkshire Property Awards 2016 for its ground-breaking £162 million funding arrangement with Legal & General Capital. Kevin McCabe, founder and Chairman of Scarborough International Properties was also awarded Property Entrepreneur of the Year at the Insider Property Industry Awards 2016 for his role in attracting Far East investment to Yorkshire.