This 6.5 hectares (16 acres) site, close to the centre of Leeds has a long history of industrial use, not just for gas manufacture but, in the nineteenth century, as a railway yard.
Click the image above for a 360° view of the Leeds City Office Park site.
As a result, when gas manufacture ceased on the site in the mid-1970s - although its location gave the site significant potential - its former use meant that a substantial legacy of contamination had to be addressed first.
To take full advantage of the site's potential, National Grid Property devised a regeneration strategy for it based on speculative development and sale. As a first step the site was cleaned up using a combination of excavation and on site bioremediation, minimising the need for off-site disposal.
National Grid Property then decided to construct speculatively two major buildings offering, respectively, 70,200 ft2 and 104,560 ft2. The buildings were constructed to very high specifications, to designs by Peter Foggo Associates. They have since been graded as "excellent" in the BREEAM awards issued by the Building Research Establishment, which measure environmental impact.
In 1997, the first building was leased to BT Cellnet for use as its National Customer Care Centre. During 2000, BT Cellnet doubled its Leeds-based staff numbers to 1,000 and expanded into the second building. The regeneration cycle was therefore complete and National Grid Property sold its interest in Leeds City Office Park to Canada Life.
Click here for details on the history of the
site.
Click here for a full case study on the site.
