A ceremony has been held to mark the topping out stage of a new development at Sheffield’s West Bar.
The development features an office building consists of 100,000 square foot of office space and two residential towers of 368 build-to-rent apartments.
Senior officials from Sheffield City Council, developers Urbo (West Bar) Ltd, and investors Legal and General all attended the event.
Legal and General have, so far, invested £150m in the scheme.
Peter Swallow, Managing Director at Urbo, said: “We are delighted to reach this significant milestone at West Bar Sheffield which is a strategically important regeneration project for the city. Indeed, it is integral to the transformational plan for Sheffield city centre, extending its prime core, and bringing forward much need new space for commercial and residential accommodation.”
In total, the development will see six office buildings, two residential buildings, a retail space and a multi-storey car park built when completed.
Kate Josephs, Chief Executive at Sheffield City Council, said: “Sheffield needs high quality, energy efficient office and commercial space so it’s great to see this development close to completion. West Bar is a prime example of what can be achieved through strong partnership between the public and private sector.”
Plans for the development have existed since before 2008, when the recession forced a change of plans.
Mr Swallow said: “In the initial scheme it was all really high density tall building residential photos building on the theme of the time.
“After the financial crisis that just wasn’t marketable, there wasn’t a market for that in Sheffield or probably anywhere else in the UK.
“What there was was a big gap in the market in Sheffield for large floor space offices which Sheffield didn’t have, which is what we’re doing now.”
The next building to be built will be the development’s multi-storey car park, which consists of 450 car parking spaces and offers about 300 cycle storage spaces and electric car charging points.
The West Bar development is one of a number of large developments currently being built in Sheffield, such as the 1.5 million square foot Heart of the City project.