YEP Says: Leeds: a city with ambition

A new Â£8m restaurant hub will open at the Next Clearance site in Leeds city centre, creating 160 jobs. The scheme is expected to open at the end of the year, subject to planning permission
1st March 2016.
Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe — A new Â£8m restaurant hub will open at the Next Clearance site in Leeds city centre, creating 160 jobs. The scheme is expected to open at the end of the year, subject to planning permission 1st March 2016. Picture : Jonathan Gawthorpe

Few people, other than perhaps our much older readers, will realise this - but the spot in Leeds city centre on the corner of Albion Street where the Next Outlet currently sits is the site where your Yorkshire Evening Post came into being.

The original building is long gone of course and, over the decades, the area has morphed and developed and, in its current incarnation, is at the heart of the city’s thrumming retail quarter.

Now developers have new plans for the spot. Our City Buzz reporter Juliette Bains reports today of plans to create a new restaurant ‘hub’ in the area.

Four big names have already expressed an interest in the major scheme with the hope that more than 160 jobs could be created.

Put in broader context the development is another filip for a city with optimism at its heart.

Last year Deloitte’s ‘Leeds Cranes Survey’ revealed Leeds continuing to build - and build fast - as developers and investors looked to the regions for better returns on their investment.

The survey revealed office construction was at its highest since 2007; it revealed the highest number of new residential start-ups in nine years; it revealed investor increases across all sectors and, critically, consolidation of Leeds’ position in the northern marketplace.

This most recent announcement, coupled with the planned developments on the former Tetley’s site give evidence, if more evidence were needed of this city’s impressive ambition.

All that’s needed now is a joined up transport infrastructure that gets you from A to B and on to C on time, efficiently, speedily and back again. Is that asking too much?