The construction and infrastructure company won a competitive tender process and is set to build a new mixed-use development, set over a four-and-half-acre site. The developer is Leicester-headquartered property group, Charles Street Buildings (CSB).
Plans for the site, which is located off Vaughan Way, include two new hotels – one six storey and one ten storey; 35,000 sq ft of office space, and a new public realm area, called Great Central Square.
Works will be carried out alongside the regeneration of the former Leicester Central train station and creation of a new car park for the hotels and office, which CSB will undertake itself.
The new hotels alone will support 60 new jobs, and the extra visitor capacity is expected to bolster the city-region’s thriving tourism industry.
Alongside the mixed-use scheme, Morgan Sindall is also carrying out a £3 million programme of highway improvements to Vaughan Way and Grand Central Station Street.
Leicester City Council has commissioned infrastructure upgrades as part of its wider Connecting Leicester programme, which aims to improve links between key city areas.
The work will see a ‘super-crossing’ built over Vaughan Way. It will link the new mixed-use development with the existing Highcross shopping centre, providing safe access for pedestrians and cyclists over the ring road, to the north west of the city centre.
The majority of the work will be completed at night, to minimise disruption to motorists.
Work on the mixed-use development will begin in March 2018 with completion expected by autumn the following year.
Sean Bowles, Managing Director of Morgan Sindall in the Midlands, said: “Leicester is riding a wave of optimism and prosperity, on the back of a resurgent tourist industry.
“We worked closely with the city council to successfully deliver the Richard III visitor centre, which has helped maximise interest in the historic find. We’re incredibly pleased to be working with them, and with CSB, to deliver both this landmark scheme and the programme of important infrastructure upgrades.
“It will breathe new life into the Great Central station area and substantially improve the accommodation offer for visitors to the city.”
Joseph Murphy, Director, at CSB, said: “We’re very pleased to have appointed Morgan Sindall to deliver this landmark development which is set to drive much-needed regeneration in the Waterside area.
“Critical to the success of the scheme, and the resurgence of this part of Leicester, is the super crossing which will reconnect the site with the Highcross shopping centre and the rest of the city.
“To get to this stage is testament to a pro-business local authority working collaboratively with a developer with long established local roots, and a main contractor with the dual capability to deliver an ambitious mixed-used scheme and a programme of infrastructure works.”
Leicester City Mayor Peter Soulsby, added: “The Connecting Leicester work taking place across the city has been vital in reconnecting important areas of the city, and the work on Vaughan Way is the next stage of that.
“The city’s Waterside area will be key in the next stage of creating business and office space, housing other community facilities, and needs to be better connected to the rest of the city centre.
“Vaughan Way is possibly the busiest part of the city’s inner ring road, providing access to many part of the city including Highcross, the A50 and A6 arterial roads out of the city, St Margaret’s Bus Station, St Nicholas Circle and the Southgates underpass.
‘Therefore it is vital both that we provide a well-located and safe crossing point for pedestrians and cyclists, as well as improving the existing road layout to ensure it meets modern needs.”