Fresh details emerged today about plans for the development of the site of the abandoned Lumiere skyscrapers project in Leeds.
As revealed your YEP, city councillors are set to consider proposals for an 11-storey office and hotel development on the Wellington Street site.
A recently-published council report on the matter, however, does not give any information about who is behind the scheme.
Now, though, it has emerged that consultancy firm EC Harris was appointed earlier this year as asset manager for the mothballed site.
The firm was brought in by the Lumiere scheme’s liquidators to try to make the land more attractive to potential developers.
And one key way of achieving that aim would be securing planning consent for the office and hotel project.
EC Harris will be giving a presentation to councillors on the proposals this Thursday with architects Aedas and planning consultants Turley Associates.
The Yorkshire Evening Post understands that, even without the new planning consent, the land has already attracted interest from would-be developers.
Speaking at the time of EC Harris’s appointment in February, Roger Thompson, a partner at the firm, said: “It has been dormant for a long time but we are hopeful that by seeking to review and secure a new planning consent for the site we can help to make it more attractive and viable for potential occupiers, investors and developers.”
Lumiere’s 54 and 32-storey towers would have housed 952 homes, making it the tallest residential building in western Europe.
Construction work on the much-trumpeted scheme began in December 2007 but by the summer of the following year it had stalled due to the credit crunch.
The KW Linfoot plc firm that was the driving force behind the project went into administration just over six months later and the site has stood vacant ever since.
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