Member Article

Sheffield gets green light for £65 million Chinese property development

A £65 million Sheffield property development has been given the green light by city councillors.

Sheffield-based firm New Era Development Ltd will start work on the 21-storey mixed leisure, commercial and residential development in July this year after planning officers gave it the go ahead.

The development will transform an area between London Road and Bramall Lane, close to the city centre and New Era Development Ltd, said it will create a “cosmopolitan, international, multi-cultural square which is available to all.”

The major project will include retail units, food and drink outlets on the ground floor, leading out to an open-air square for events. A large Chinese supermarket will span two levels.

On the first floor there will be office space for professional service businesses, an exhibition hall and a China Business Incubator to enhance enterprise and trade between China and the UK.

From the third floor there will be approximately 700 student accommodation units, predominately 30sqm studio rooms, plus micro-flats and student cluster flats.

The project, which has received significant inward investment from China, is set to create more than 400 new jobs once construction has been completed.

The project also received the backing of the some of the city’s key people and organisations – with Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg, Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council and Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield Central, all speaking out in support of the project.

Jerry Cheung, managing director of New Era Development (UK) Ltd, said: “We are absolutely delighted that New Era Square has been granted planning approval. This is the culmination of many years of hard work so it is the best possible news we could have hoped for.

“As well as providing leisure and residential facilities, the China Business Incubator within the development will become a hub for promoting international trade, focusing on opportunities for businesses to increase their presence in China and to bring more inward business from the Far East.

“We are very much looking forward to seeing our vision of this exciting project come to life once work begins.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .