Plans revealed for major 550-home city centre scheme

More details have emerged regarding a £60m, 550-home development which developers say will transform neglected land close to Leicester City Centre.

The scheme, straddling the river Soar, will involve 300 exclusive private rented apartments, and a 250-bed nine storey student accommodation block.

The scheme, by Leicester-based developer Sowden Group, will be submitted for planning permission shortly.

The development will stretch from Braunstone Gate, across a backwater of the Soar including land occupied by derelict arches which were once part of the Great Central Railway. The student block would be further along the river.

The development will be similar to another Sowden project, the nearby 11-storey apartment block in Vaughan Way. Plans are being drawn up by East Midlands architects Franklin Ellis.

Roy Coley, managing director of Sowden Group, said the Braunstone Gate scheme would bring previously derelict land into use again, providing much needed high quality city centre residential accommodation.

“This is a significant project which will open up an area which has suffered from anti-social behaviour. It’s an ambitious scheme but is already attracting interest from investors,” he said.

If planning permission is approved work could begin by the end of the year with the first tenants moving in by 2021.