Building work begins on Wellington Street flats on the old Yorkshire Evening Post site

Designed by The Harris Partnership, the first phase will provide 242 build-to-rent apartments for the private rental sector operator, Grainger.

The development on Wellington Street will include one and two-bedroom apartments over 18 storeys with views across the River Aire.

The proposal includes shops and residents amenity areas, including a gym and eleventh floor bronze-clad sky lounge.

It will also feature an outdoor public area, improved cycle links to the city centre and an enhanced river corridor.

The site was cleared in 2014 and work is scheduled for completion in Spring 2021.

The offices were home to this newspaper for more than 40 years.

The old building, which was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1970, once housed more than 1,300 staff.

The site was designed by the John Madin Design Group, a company formed by John Madin, who was the architect of a number of buildings in the 1960s, such as the BBC’s Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.

In 1971 it won a Bronze RIBA Yorkshire Regional award with judges praising it as “an extremely successful solution to [the client’s] very complex planning problem”.

Staff moved out into new, more modern accommodation on Whitehall Road in 2013.