Court orders Toronto Square developer to demolish extension

A DEVELOPER is appealing against a court order to pull down part of a high profile Yorkshire office building it redeveloped after a neighbour complained that it obstructed his ‘rights of light’.

Toronto Square in Leeds is home to tenants including Reed Recuitment and accountancy firm Zolfo Cooper, which has taken a 10-year lease to occupy 7,050 sq ft of the top floor of the building.

Judge Langan QC, sitting at the Leeds District Registry, awarded Marcus Heaney a mandatory injunction against Highcross for the ‘actionable interference’ with rights of light to the former Yorkshire Penny Bank building in Infirmary Street.

Mr Heaney owns the neighbouring listed building from which he operates his Aspire events management business.

Chris Mills, commercial development director at Newbury-based Highcross, said the property fund manager and developer was appealing against the court’s decision after taking professional advice.

In a joint statement, Mr Heaney’s legal team, London-based barrister Stephen Bickford–Smith, of Landmark Chambers, and Leeds-based lawyers Matthew Baker and Keith Shaw, of law firm Pinsent Masons, said: “There is no principle that injunctions are less readily granted in rights of light cases. This is something that the developer has learnt to its peril.

“Developers need to realise that they cannot just ‘assume’ that rights of light claims can be ‘paid off’ prior to, or in the course of, a trial; instead they need to resolve all potential claims before actually starting work, otherwise their prize development may end up being ripped down.”

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Highcross bought the then five-storey property on Infirmary Street in December 2005 and added a sixth and seventh floor as well as refurbishing the existing building.

The 90,000 sq ft Toronto Square office scheme, previously known as Block A of Cloth Hall Court, was completed in 2009, following a multi-million pound redevelopment and extension programme.

The building incorporates a range of environmental initiatives, including air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, areas of green roofs, a green recycling hub, initiatives to save waste water and a landscaping scheme which enhances site ecology.

Mr Heaney is understood to have protested about the plans for the development before work began but no agreement could be reached.

The judge was asked to consider whether an injunction, requiring effectively one third of the upper floors of the development to be removed, or damages, based on the sum that the parties would have agreed in hypothetical negotiations to relax the infringement about light, should be awarded.

Andrew Francis, counsel for Highcross, argued in court that to award an injunction would cost Highcross up to £2.5m to carry out the works, prime office space would be lost in Leeds city centre and there would be disruption to both Zolfo Cooper’s and other occupants’ operations at the building.

A spokeswoman for Zolfo Cooper said the firm did not want to comment on the situation.

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