Harworth Group has received a planning approval from Rotherham Council for a €56.39m (£50m) retail, leisure and office scheme that will act as the local centre of its flagship 740-acre mixed-use development at Waverley, Rotherham. On completion, Waverley will provide c. 4,000 homes and over 2m ft² of leading employment space at the world-renowned Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP).
The local centre will involve the delivery of over 190,000 ft² of mixed-use space that will be developed by Waverley Square Limited, a joint venture between Harworth Group and Dransfield Properties.
The scheme will include:
· Healthcare and new community facilities, including a new bus station
· Up to 99,000 ft² for a new food store and retail space
· High specification office space covering 38,000 ft²
· Restaurants, coffee shops and a gym
· A car park with up to 500 customer spaces as well as a separate staff car park.
Development is expected to take around two years to reach full build-out, with construction work due to begin in Spring 2018. On completion it will act as a central hub, linking the AMP and the growing residential development at Waverley, which currently comprises over 700 homes.
For the AMP, Harworth secured a 20-year pre-let to leading sports car manufacturer McLaren Automotive in July for a brand new 75,000 ft² unit, joining other major employers including Boeing, Rolls-Royce and the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). This unit is due for practical completion in Spring 2018.
Residential land sales also continue to perform strongly with the most recent sale in June of 8.17 acres being made to national housebuilder Taylor Wimpey for the delivery of 130 new homes. Exchanges on further land sales to housebuilders at Waverley are expected shortly, ahead of completion by year-end.
Owen Michaelson, Chief Executive of Harworth, commented: “Delivering these local facilities in partnership with Dransfield Properties will create a genuine heart for the Waverley community, being a place where local residents, employees and students can satisfy their everyday retail and leisure needs. We see this as a critical phase in the development of the entire 20-year scheme and provides further evidence of Harworth’s placemaking abilities.We have seen numerous successes at Waverley over the past twelve months in terms of both residential and commercial delivery and we expect the development to continue to be a strong driver of capital and income growth for the business for many years to come.”
