Sovereign Square development attracts interest to move 250 jobs from South East
AN inward investment project that would bring up to 250 jobs to Leeds is among the potential occupiers for the remaining space at the 3 Sovereign Square development.
The unnamed firm has inspected progress at the development, which is nearly one year into its 83-week timetable.
The building, which is next door to KPMG’s new home and close to Leeds railway station, has now reached its topping out milestone.
It will be home to Addleshaw Goddard, which is moving across the road to take 51,000 sq ft over three floors . The development is ahead of schedule, with the law firm’s space expected to be ready for them to move into in November.
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The remaining space – ground floor retail units plus the top two floors of office space – is scheduled to be completed in July.
“I would like to think it will be fully let by the time we finish,” said Craig Burrow, director of Bruntwood in Leeds, which is one of two joint venture developers, along with Kier Property.
“There is a lot of interest in the ground floor. We are close to agreeing terms with one or two, which is in line with our plan.
“We have had a number of viewings recently on the upper levels and it is well known there are a number of office requirements and they are getting closer to making decisions.
“Predominantly they are already Leeds-based but there was a viewing on Thursday that would be bringing a new provision for Leeds. It would be 200-250 jobs, coming from the South East.”
However Mr Burrow called for more to be done to attract inward investments to the city.
“One of my issues has always been we don’t seem to be attracting enough new occupiers of any scale to the city and we are constantly competing with everyone else in the city, just moving everyone around,” he said.
“We have got an opportunity this year with the amount of stock that will be delivered.”
He highlighted Leeds Bradford Airport, the railway station and connections to Manchester as some of the key transport infrastructure challenges which need to be improved, as does the city’s ability to take its message to different parts of the UK and overseas.
“Leeds, until quite recently, has not been good enough at shouting about all of the great things that it does have,” said Mr Burrow.
“It is changing. Roger Marsh at the LEP is doing a very good job with co-ordinating that and getting in front of the right people and having the right conversations.
“Collectively as a business community we probably need to be more.”
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