After being abandoned for almost a quarter-of-a-century the 130-acre former Skelton Grange power station site in West Yorkshire is finally on the market.
Built to serve the city of Leeds and the surrounding areas, the coal-fired power plant closed in 1990 and the site — adjacent to the Aire Valley Enterprise Zone in Stourton — has remained largely neglected.
Sixty acres of the site has already been granted outline planning consent for 850,000sq ft of industrial uses and there is detailed consent for an energy recovery facility on an additional 20 acres. “This site presents a rare opportunity for a developer or investor to secure a prime piece of land on one of Leeds’ premier commercial corridors,” said Mike Baugh, a senior director at agents CBRE.
“This is a hugely significant, strategic site in South Leeds due to its key location next to the Aire Valley Enterprise Zone and because of its size and the consents already in place,” he added. “This area of West Yorkshire is already on the map and will benefit from serious investment as the plans for the enterprise zone are realised.”
Covering 350 acres, the neighbouring enterprise zone is one of three within Yorkshire and has already attracted the likes of Royal Mail, Arla Foods, Sheffield Insulation Group and Robert Horne Paper and is expected to create at least 7,000 jobs when full. Combined with the Skelton Grange site — and sharing access to junction 44 of the M1 and junction seven of the M621 — they make up one of the biggest regeneration areas in the North of England.
“We are certainly seeing a steady increase in both occupier and investor activity within the region’s industrial sector and it is an exciting time to be bringing an opportunity site of this scale to market,” Baugh added.
The former power station site has already been designated an employment area under a county council unitary development plan. And granting permission last year for the energy recovery facility, Leeds City Council said the site “had low sensitivity in landscape terms and the degree of change was considered to be neutral bearing in mind the urban setting and the much larger coal fired station that previously occupied the site”.
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