Quarry Hill acquisition after £33m funding
Leeds City College has acquired land at Quarry Hill on which it will develop a 160,000 sq ft campus following a major commitment from the LEP.
It will house the college’s digital, creative arts and health sciences departments, and allow the expansion of Leeds College of Music.
The project has received £33.4m investment through the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership’s £1bn Growth Deal.
Construction work will commence during July 2017 with an estimated completion date of June 2019 ready for the 2019-2020 academic year.
The 11-storey development, neighbouring the West Yorkshire Playhouse, will include science labs, computing and digital technology labs, specialist childcare training facilities, lecture theatres, dance, art, and film studios, and a performance theatre. It will also house new recording studio facilities for music courses.
Caddick Developments has planned a £300m development at Quarry Hill. Caddick’s proposal includes 106,000sq ft of offices, 35,000sq ft leisure, in excess of 700 residential units, a multi-storey car park and 7,500sq ft retail facilities.
Jane Pither, deputy principal corporate services at Leeds City College, said: “This exciting campus in the heart of Leeds will be a dynamic and contemporary learning environment that meets the needs of the local economy.
“It will highlight our commitment to providing exceptional learning spaces and enhance and complement this cultural quarter of the city.”
Roger Marsh OBE, chairman of the LEP said: “We’re delighted that Quarry Hill – one of the projects in our total £79m investment in FE infrastructure across the City Region and Leeds City College’s second major new city centre site – has begun to be realised.
“This transformational and ambitious development will give students from Leeds, Bradford and the wider City Region access to world class, state-of-the-art training facilities, allowing the College to closer align the powerhouse skills of our future workforce with the needs of our City Region businesses.”
Quarry Hill will be the college’s second major new city centre site, to add to its Hunslet Road Printworks Campus development. The £10m final phase of the Printworks Campu has also received funding through the LEP’s Growth Deal and is set to open in September 2017.
Caddick Development plans for Quarry Hill, Leeds
