Clarion Housing Group is to bring forward 1,800 homes through fresh plans for the former City Reach scheme in Leeds.
The housing association’s development arm Latimer has proposed 1,437 homes, including build-to-rent, and a further 362 student beds at the 12-acre site in Kirkstall Road.
The site was previously earmarked for 1,597 homes, including 818 build-to-rent homes, via developer Inhabit. It was marked for sale in 2018, as the largest site in a 3,000-home portfolio, after advanced discussions with Greystar fell apart.
Latimer bought the site a year ago and announced plans to plough £200m into a large-scale residential project, to include 35% affordable housing. New plans will now see a larger proportion of for-sale. Latimer has proposed 205 build-to-rent flats, 307 shared ownership and 196 social rented, with the remaining 729 as private sale.
There will be 47,000 sq ft of flexible ground floor space, incorporating retail, commercial, leisure, health and community space. Almost half the site (45%) will be redeveloped as public realm.
The application includes detailed plans for 619 homes across four blocks, a block of 362 student beds (334 cluster flats and 28 studios and four townhouses. There will be 205 BTR homes in one block, another block dedicated to student beds, a building with 184 private sale homes and 140 shared ownership homes, plus another area with 90 social rented homes and four private sale townhouses.
Outline plans for future phases will see a further 804 flats across six buildings, split as private sale shared ownership and social-rented homes. In total, the developer has planned 1.36m sq ft of residential space.
The site sits on the River Aire and Kirkstall Road. It was previously occupied by the former Yorkshire Chemical Works and First Bus depot. Those buildings have been demolished and two halves of the site have allocations for residential development in the Leeds Site Allocations Plan.
Clarion Housing Group is the UK’s largest housing association with 125,000 homes in more than 170 local authorities. The development business Latimer has net assets of over £7bn and an annual turnover of close to £1bn.
Litchfields is advising on planning.
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