L&G ploughs €229m into Leeds regeneration project

UK insurer Legal & General has acquired a 50% stake in a mixed-use development site in East Leeds for £162 mln (€229 mln) as part of a joint venture with developer-investor Scarborough Group.

The joint venture will deliver phase two of Thorpe Park Leeds, an 80-hectare mixed-use scheme, with Legal & General Capital (LGC) providing the finance required to develop it over a five-year period.

The deal represents the first project to be delivered since the start of L&G’s Regeneration Investment Organisation (RIO) partnership in January. L&G has pledged to co-invest £1.5 bn into RIO pipeline projects alongside capital from other institutions and major overseas investors and is working with the government’s inward investment body, UKTI, to attract an additional £15 bn of investment into regeneration projects that support UK growth.

Scarborough Group has been involved with Thorpe Park Leeds for more than 20 years, having built and sold the first phase of the scheme, and will act as development manager for the project. This year Scarborough received planning consent for the first 60,000 sq ft of offices and consent for 300 new homes on the site.

Sir Michael Bear, chairman of RIO, commented: ‘The United Kingdom is known internationally as an attractive place in which to invest in large-scale regeneration and infrastructure projects. For too long, however, investment has been focused on London and the South East. I am pleased that Legal & General have announced their first investment, under their partnership with UK Trade & Investment’s Regeneration Investment Organisation, alongside established developer Scarborough Group in Thorpe Park.

‘Following the recent successful visit to Singapore and Malaysia, I would hope that investors from Singapore and Malaysia and other dynamic economies would follow the lead of a leading domestic player by investing in the significant growth opportunity the Northern Powerhouse represents.’