Dransfield Properties has secured a loan for almost a quarter of the £42m it needs to redevelop a former South Yorkshire steelworks site. The developer has already been awarded an £8m European grant for the scheme.
Ground work started last month on the 28-acre mixed-use development at Fox Valley, north Sheffield, with the construction phase expected to be over by the end of next year. The first tenants of the reclaimed Outokumpu steel production site at Stocksbridge will move in by spring 2016.
Barnsley-based Dransfield has already received a kick-starter investment of just over £8.1m from the Yorkshire and Humber European Regional Development Fund, which is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG). The latest cash injection of £10m comes from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking.
Based around a new A616 link road, the scheme includes 50,000sq ft of office space and 110,000sq ft of new retail and restaurant units, anchored by a 63,000sq ft Tesco. The developer is also working with Stonebridge Homes to build 114 homes on the site. There will also be parking for 635 vehicles.
Tesco says the new Fox Valley store would employ about 250 staff, while the developers believe the whole project will generate up to 900 jobs. “We hope our new store will provide a major boost to employment in the town,” said a spokesman for the supermarket chain. “This is a landmark proposal and should enhance what is now neglected industrial land.”
The construction contract has been awarded to Sheffield-based Henry Boot, which is currently building a 75,000sq ft warehouse for the relocation of the Tata Steel stockyard on the site. Once the new warehouse has been completed later this year, and the land reclaimed, it can then move onto the main project.
“The scheme is already attracting significant interest from major retail brands and we have secured a number of pre-lets from both national and independent companies,” explained Dransfield managing director, Mark Dransfield. “We have been developing plans for Fox Valley for a number of years and are very excited about being in a position to bring it forward this year.”
He said Lloyds Bank had supported various Dransfield projects for 15 years. “Their funding and advice has been pivotal to our growth during this period. As we embark on what is one of our largest and most complex schemes yet, their involvement is once again essential and highly valued.”
Tom Cross is relationship director with Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking’s Mid-Markets Real Estate team. “Fox Valley will be one of the largest and most significant developments to get underway in South Yorkshire in 2014 and there are few better placed to make it a success than Dransfield,” he said. “From a banking perspective, we are proud to be their main funding partner and to be able to provide support to a scheme that will bring new life to a former industrial site, and which will create hundreds of new jobs.”
