Hammerson launches Leeds City Quarters concept

The institutional landlord said it plans to redevelop the 17,975 sq ft surface car park next to its flagship Victoria Gate shopping centre into a 14-storey hotel “for business and leisure guests”.

It said the new hotel anchor will drive additional footfall and spend to the city and “enhances both the offer at Hammerson’s destination and the Leeds cultural quarter”.

The Victoria Gate Hotel will be one of the first schemes to be developed as part of Hammerson’s City Quarters concept – which will focus on creating mixed-use developments around the landlord’s existing shopping centres in cities around the UK.

The development in Leeds is set to be the third City Quarters scheme to receive planning permission, after recent applications for Martineau Galleries in Birmingham and the Goodsyard in Shoreditch, London.

Hammerson said the new hotel development will create around 980 construction jobs in the city over the life of the project and a further 50 full-time jobs onsite upon completion.

The landlord said it also owns a further 10-acre site north of Victoria Leeds, which will be “bought forward for development in due course, creating a new mixed-use City Quarters neighbourhood”.

UK director of development and project management at Hammerson said: “We are pleased to be able to share plans for a new hotel within the Victoria Estate as we continue the rollout of our City Quarters concept in thriving locations around the UK and Ireland.

“Hammerson has a strong track record of delivery in Leeds city centre and these plans for a new, contemporary hotel represent the next step in our wider regeneration plans, creating a mixed-use destination where people can live, work and relax, centred around our premium flagship destination, Victoria Leeds.”

The City Quarters concept is part of the landlord’s turnaround strategy, after posting disappointing financial numbers this year.

At its most recent set of interim results for the first half of the 2018/19 financial year, Hammerson reported a 6.8% fall in net rental income, due to retail CVAs and administrations. Adjusted profits plunged 10.5% to £107.4m.