Green light for Springfield House redevelopment

Leeds City Council has approved McLaren Property’s 330-bedspace student accommodation project, which will include the refurbishment and conversion of the grade two-listed building and the addition of new wings.

Leeds’ city plans panel approved the project on Thursday 16 May. Delivered by McLaren, the scheme will sit in mature landscaped grounds adjacent to the University of Leeds campus.

Officers had recommended approval.

The development, designed by Cartwright Pickard Architects, places the refurbished Springfield House at the heart of the scheme. The grade two-listed building will be the main entrance to the development and will house amenity and support services for the purpose-built student accommodation, including a gym and wellness area, study spaces, games room and entertaining kitchen/dining spaces, both internally and in private courtyards.

Following some demolition work to 20th century buildings, the refurbished Springfield House will be complemented by two new wings which will provide student living, with 140 studios and 194 cluster bedrooms. Four-storey blocks will adjoin the heritage building, with a taller building, reaching 13 storeys, to one side.

The scheme includes private landscaped courtyards, communal amenity, cycle provision and study spaces.

Springfield House project team:

• Cartwright Pickard: architect
• Gardiner & Theobald: PMQS
• ID Planning: planning consultant
• Ares: landscape architect
• Roscoe: structural engineer
• Atelier Ten: services engineer
• Hydrock: fire/acoustics/sustainability/BREEAM
• JCA: arboricultural consultant

McLaren Property’s regional managing director Tom Gilman said: “We are really excited to bring forward this scheme and thrilled to have received support from Plans Panel members.

“We have worked diligently with our design team and Leeds City Council to ensure Springfield House will deliver best-in-class student accommodation, whilst sympathetically centre around the Grade ll listed building. The scheme is in a prime location situated adjacent to the University. We look forward to progressing to the construction phase and regenerating this site.”

McLaren Property has a hefty Leeds pipeline, with a capital value of around £700m, including the recently approved Wellington Square, a mixed-use development incorporating 464 build-to-rent homes, delivered by McLaren Living and 364,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Founded in 2010, the business has forged a range of joint ventures and funding partnerships and is currently working with Topland and Blackstone on The Oaks in Coventry, with Barings on St Gabriel’s Hall in Manchester, with Aventicum Real Estate on the development of Queen’s Hospital Close in Birmingham and with M&G on Talbot Street in Nottingham.

McLaren Property is also working alongside Property Alliance Group, Moda and Kadans on a £450m masterplan for Upper Brook Street in Manchester’s university area.