MEPC, a commercial developer, has submitted a planning application for the first building of the third phase of its £450m Wellington Place development in Leeds.

The building will be situated in the heart of Leeds’ West End and will consist of 160,000 sq ft of Grade A commercial office space, along with 8,000 sq ft of ground floor retail space.

Rick de Blaby, chief executive officer of MEPC, told PIN: “Having consulted extensively before submitting our application, we’d be optimistic about obtaining approval in October/November this year. We would then have an aspiration to start on site in the early to mid part of 2009, motivated by an obvious lack of competing supply coming through.

“No one is pretending that conditions for property development are easy, against a background of slowing economic activity and a scarcity of finance. Leeds, however, has always demonstrated resilience to any wider slowdown as evidenced by the consistent levels of annual office floorspace take-up and we would have confidence about the stability of the city’s employers in these conditions.
“The lack of finance is an issue affecting the whole real estate sector and whilst we are not immune to the effects of the ‘credit crunch’, as long term investors with a strong income stream, we are perhaps better placed than some to undertake new projects like Wellington Place, which we wish to see become the definitive 5-star business quarter for Leeds’ West End. That said, like everyone else we will have to watch carefully the Capital and economic markets over the next few months.”