Major mixed-use scheme to start as contractor appointed

Plans to create two hotels and 35,000 sq ft of office space in Leicester are to move forward after Morgan Sindall won the competitive tender.

The £47m Great Central Square development, which is located off Vaughan Way, is a mixed-use scheme over four acres in the city centre.

Work will begin next month with the development scheduled to be completed in late 2019. It is being carried out alongside the regeneration of the former Leicester Central train station.

Morgan Sindall is also carrying out a £3m programme of highway improvements to Vaughan Way and Grand Central Station Street.

“Leicester is riding a wave of optimism and prosperity, on the back of a resurgent tourist industry,” said Sean Bowles, managing director of Morgan Sindall in the Midlands.

“It will breathe new life into the Great Central station area and substantially improve the accommodation offer for visitors to the city.”

The two hotels will be six storeys and 10 storeys high and between them support 60 jobs.

Joseph Murphy, director at developer Charles Street Buildings, said: “To get to this stage is testament to a pro-business local authority working collaboratively with a developer with long established local roots, and a main contractor with the dual capability to deliver an ambitious mixed-used scheme and a programme of infrastructure works.”