Lower cost spurs appetite for Sheffield, top developer says

The increasing cost of developing in the most established centres has boosted the attraction of other major regional cities like Sheffield, a leading north west developer has said. Adam Higgins, Founder and Director of Capital & Centric, told delegates at our Sheffield event about the company’s first foray in the city regional market – the Eye Witness development.

The regeneration of the former tailor’s building will deliver 97 homes in a mix of flats and town houses grouped around three courtyards, bringing new life into a currently under-used part of Sheffield city centre.

Explaining Capital & Centric’s move into Sheffield, Higgins said: “The cost of building is pretty much the same in Manchester or Sheffield but the viability is lower and it’s harder to develop.”

Whilst Manchester city centre now has an ‘awful lot’ of non-student residential properties, there is greater potential for growth in cities like Sheffield, pointing out that plenty of opportunities exist for such development within walking distance of the city centre.

Speaking ahead of the Offsite Manufacture Exhibition and Conference in June he said the company is weighing up whether to use traditional or modern methods of construction (MMC) for a new range of two storey suburban style housing that it is bringing forward – which he said will ‘probably’ use a ‘half way solution’ using panels.

Some developers however, which have opted for MMC, have seen a slow-down in delivery due to bottlenecks at the factories they’re using: “The factories can’t keep up so modular is holding up delivery. I suspect there will be lots of mistakes but in the end a lot more will go modular. At the moment, it’s no cheaper but I suspect that will get better.”

The firms Kampus redevelopment of a former Manchester Metropolitan University site is due to complete by the end of this year, Higgins confirmed.

Jerry Cheung, Managing Director of New Era Development, told delegates that the first phase of his plans for a Sheffield Chinatown is complete, whilst the second phase of the development – known as New Era – is ‘well underway’ and should be complete by May 2020.

The scheme contains 700 student bedrooms in three blocks enclosing a central plaza surrounded by 2,500sq m of retail area. Around 450 students, mainly from China, have already moved into the accommodation, which also contains 4,000sq m of business accommodation, including conference and exhibition space and the China-UK Business Incubator which launched in September.

The centre will help to forge better links between Sheffield and China, boosting the city region’s exports to the world’s second biggest economy: “The UK is very well placed to attract Chinese investment. China and the UK are perfect business partners. We don’t do enough in Sheffield to tell people how good we are, we keep it secret.”

Cheung added that 80% of the 30 plus contractors and sub-contractors working on the New Era project are local businesses.

Scott Cardwell, Assistant Director for Development at Doncaster Council, spoke about plans to create a ‘Pinewood of the North’ at High Melton in the South Yorkshire borough. The £64m scheme, which boasts proposals for seven sound stages, would turn Doncaster into one of the top locations in the UK for filming.

The new studio will create around 1,000 jobs, including 150 in high earning visual effect posts, where the UK currently ‘has a real dearth of talent’.

In another ‘internationally significant development’, he outlined plans for a Ryder Cup standard gold course together with 400 homes that will be located only two-minute drive from Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

The council are also set to submit a bid for up to £25m from the Government’s £675m high street fund to help regeneration the town centre. If successful the money would help plug viability gaps on plans to redevelop land that it owns in the town centre, which has recently received a fillip following the decision by clothing retailer Flannels to open an outlet.

Cardwell shared additional information on a new link road from J5 of the M18 to the site of the ‘Project Unity’ scheme, where the council has granted permission for 3,100 new homes and 41 ha for employment. The scheme was unlocked through Sheffield City Region funding – who have so far spent more than half of their infrastructure investment in Doncaster.

Doncaster Council are also exceeding its local plan target to deliver 920 new homes per annum, with 1,200 dwellings being granted permission over the last year.

On the other hand Sharon Kemp, Chief Executive of Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, admitted that her authority needed to increase its rate of housing delivery – which is currently averaging 600 homes per annum against a 900 homes per year target. She said: “We know we need to step up.”

The council is investing ‘substantially’ in affordable housing, having built 576 new council homes with around 250 per annum thereafter in the delivery pipeline.

In employment news the council have allocated 264 ha for employment use – which could bring 21,000 new jobs to the region.

In the town centre, where Muse has been appointed the council’s development partner, Kemp said the £12m refurbishment of the interchange station will be finished in April. 

Kemp added that cash-strapped councils needed to think ‘creatively’ about how they can use tools like head leases to maximise returns from developing their assets.

Mark Jackson, Consultant at Scarborough Group International, outlined progress on the Sheffield city centre Digital Campus, where he said the Acero building has let ‘very well’. Now the company are hoping to pre-let its next building Vidrio, the company’s larger floorplated building which is expected to go on site in the next six months.

Jackson added that it is hoped the Olympic Legacy Park, which the company is helping to develop, will provide the ‘critical mass’ to spur the regeneration of the Lower Don Valley, currently held back by the ‘huge number’ of ownership and land interests within the area.