GMI wins £70m Thorpe Park expansion

GMI Construction has been appointed to build two new office buildings at Thorpe Park Leeds.Scarborough Group International (SGI) has secured planning consent from Leeds City Council for the development of a 133,118 sq ft headquarters building in addition to a nearby 60,000 sq ft building that was approved earlier this year.With site preparation now started at Thorpe Park, it has appointed GMI Construction to build both of them. The gross development value is £71m. The contract value was not disclosed.Further investment will also be made into the surrounding landscape as Redrow continues to develop new homes at the park. The phase two development at Thorpe Park Leeds (which is at junction 46 of the M1) was enabled following a £162m investment from Legal & General Capital in 2015, paving the way for 1.35 million sq ft of mixed use expansion. It has also enabled the delivery of the first section of the East Leeds Orbital Road (ELOR), being built by Balfour Beatty, connecting north and east Leeds to junction 46 of the M1. Together with a new East Leeds Parkway railway station, the Department for Transport is investing £270m in infrastructure in this part of Leeds.