Planning secured for £50m Waverley development

RNS Number : 7690U

Harworth Group PLC

27 October 2017

 

27 October 2017

Harworth Group plc ("Harworth" or the "Company")

Planning secured for £50 million retail, leisure and community centre at flagship Waverley development

- Demonstrates further momentum at Waverley following residential land sales and new lettings at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Summer 2017 -

Harworth Group plc, the brownfield regeneration and property investment specialist, has received planning approval from Rotherham Council for a major retail, leisure and office scheme that will act as the local centre of its flagship 740 acre mixed use development at Waverley, Rotherham. This new phase is further evidence of the Company's success at placemaking which has seen it transform a reclaimed former industrial site into a thriving residential and business community. On completion Waverley will provide circa 4,000 homes and over 2m sq. ft. of leading employment space at the world renowned Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP).

The local centre will involve the delivery of over 190,000 sq. ft. of mixed-use space that will be developed by Waverley Square Limited, a joint venture between Harworth Group plc and Dransfield Properties Ltd.

The scheme will include:

·      Healthcare and new community facilities, including a new bus station

·      Up to 99,000 sq. ft. for a new foodstore and retail space

·      High specification office space covering 38,000 sq. ft.

·      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 central hub, linking the AMP and the growing residential development at Waverley, which currently comprises over 700 homes.

Momentum at the 20 year regeneration scheme continues to grow.  At the AMP, Harworth secured a 20 year pre-let to leading sports car manufacturer McLaren Automotive in July for a brand new 75,000 sq. ft. 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 Ltd 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."

Enquiries:

Harworth Group plc
Iain Thomson	T: T: 0114 349 3131/07825 860215 [e-mail]
FTI Consulting	T: 020 3727 1000
Dido Laurimore Richard Gotla  Tom Gough	[e-mail]

About Harworth Group

Listed on the main market, Harworth Group plc (LSE: HWG) is a leading brownfield regeneration and property investment specialist which owns, develops and manages a portfolio of approximately 21,000 acres of land on 139 sites located throughout the Midlands and North of England. The Company specialises in the regeneration of former coalfield sites and other brownfield land into employment areas, new residential developments and low carbon energy projects.

http://www.harworthgroup.com/

About Dransfield Properties

Formed in 1992 Dransfield Properties is a South Yorkshire based company which specialises in retail led regeneration, primarily focussed on town and district centres. The company works with some of the leading names in the retail industry and has a property portfolio which includes award winning centres in both Morpeth in Northumberland and Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. In the last 18 months the company has also launched the Fox Valley development in Stocksbridge, north Sheffield.

http://www.dransfield.co.uk/

About Waverley

Situated two minutes' drive from Junction 33 of the M1, Waverley is Yorkshire's largest ever brownfield development.  Set over 740 acres, Harworth will be delivering a new community of 3,890 homes alongside 2m sq. ft. of commercial space at the world-renowned Advanced Manufacturing Park, supported by a new local centre and over 300 acres of public open space.  To date over one million sq. ft. of employment space has been developed, with over 1500 people employed by organisations including Boeing, Rolls-Royce and the University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).  Over 700 homes have also been built and occupied on the site in the past five years by Taylor Wimpey, Barratt, Harron Homes and Avant Homes.

 

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