Linfoot laughs off Lumiere claims

PROPERTY developer Kevin Linfoot has hit back at critics who have claimed his plans to build Europe's tallest residential tower are to be scaled down or even scrapped.

Mr Linfoot, who has helped pioneer city living in Leeds, laughed off suggestions that the Lumiere scheme in Leeds was under threat as the credit crunch tightened its grip on the economy.

The entrepreneur pointed to the commencement of work at the Wellington Street site as proof that it will become a reality.

Lumiere will consist of two towers incorporating residential, retail, commercial and office space. The main tower will be 54 storeys high and stand at 171m tall (559ft), while the second tower will be 31 storeys tall and 112m high.

Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com at KW Linfoot's top floor offices at Whitehall Waterfront in Leeds, which boasts spectacular views of the city centre, Mr Linfoot, the chairman of the city apartments developer, said: “The bottom line is that for the next 12 months we're doing ground works. The contractor for this is in place and we are close to signing the main contractor for the main tower.”

Mr Linfoot vented his frustration at professionals in the city, and the media, for spreading negative rumours about Lumiere, which have ranged in some quarters from the tower being redesigned to the site becoming a car park.

“A London journalist rang me and told me that I'm trying to sell the site and that the scheme is never going to happen,” said Mr Linfoot. “So I told him to get the train up to Leeds and then I could show him round the site. I've not heard from him since. The bottom line is it is going ahead.”

Mr Linfoot said a symbol of the scheme's progress was that of Lumiere's 900 residential units, only 100 remained to be sold.

However, Mr Linfoot said the scheme had gone back to planners as changes had been made to the designs of a number of 'prime pads' which will be aimed at the over 55s.

The scheme is expected to be completed in 2012.

Mr Linfoot, who has more than £1bn of developments ongoing across the UK, said plans for another skyscraper in Leeds were progressing, although he could not reveal its location.

Although Mr Linfoot believes the property market has entered a period of uncertainty following the effects of the US sub prime mortgage crisis, he said demand for city centre living, especially in Leeds, was as high as ever from both owner occupiers and tenants and that a drop in the market had been overhyped.

He said he did not believe there were too many apartments being built in Leeds but he said residential schemes such as Green Bank, which was scrapped last year, were doomed to failure because the wrong type of development had been chosen for the land, which had been overpriced.

He said developers had to have the knowledge to know when to devise residential schemes or commercial ones.

“I think there'll be a lot of scaremongering about residential sites about to crash,” he said. “You've got to understand to read the market.”

Plans for 1,400 apartments for key workers, such as teachers and nurses, on sites next to Bridgewater Place and on Regent Street in Leeds were progressing, said Mr Linfoot. The sites will include shops, gymnasiums and other amenities.

KW Linfoot is also working on developments in Manchester and London.

He said: “We're always trying to be ahead of everyone else. In five years time people will be jumping on the bandwagon, copying us.

“I think we're going into really interesting times but there's people who think you can do business as you've always done it; you can't. You've got to evolve. Branding is certainly the way forward. People want well designed things,” said Mr Linfoot, pointing to KW Linfoot's Manor Mills complex in Holbeck on which designer Phipippe Starck is involved through his Yoo property design firm.

He added: “A lot of the stuff that people say Leeds is lacking is on the drawing board but people don't want to report that. I think Leeds is an exciting city and we'll certainly be developing here for a while.”

As well as running The Linfoot Group of property development companies, Mr Linfoot also has several other business interests, including a £5m stake in television communications company CCN USA. The company services US Government agencies for emergency broadcasting.

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