£50m PRS development set for green light

Plans for a £50m development featuring hundreds of private rented sector (PRS) apartments as part of Sheffield’s Heart of the City II scheme are set to get the go ahead from councillors next week (6 August 2019).An application was submitted in May for a new building located at the corner of Rockingham Street and Wellington Street.The site – labelled Block F in the Heart of the City II masterplan and currently occupied by a surface car park – was sold by Sheffield City Council earlier this year to a joint venture group made up of US-based investment advisor Angelo Gordon and Ridgeback Group.The proposed building, known as Kangaroo Works, would step down from 15 storeys at its highest point to eight and four storeys.The development would comprise 364 apartments for private rent, ranging in size from one to three bedrooms. At ground floor level, five commercial spaces suited to cafés, restaurants or start-up businesses would be created.The scheme is named after the former tool factory that was part of the site in the 19th century.The application will go before the council’s planning and highways committee on 6 August and is recommended for approval, subject to completion of a legal agreement, in a planning officer’s report prepared for the meeting.Sheffield-based Brantingham Homes has been appointed to manage the scheme, working alongside Whittam Cox Architects and construction partner Henry Boot Construction.If approval is secured, construction of Kangaroo Works could begin by the end of 2019.Planning permission was granted in March for blocks B and C of the Heart of The City II scheme, including new retail units, offices and apartments.