Wates gets start date for £35m Leeds City College

Leeds City College has purchased land to press ahead with plans for a £35m campus at Quarry Hill in the city centre.The deal paves the way for preferred bidder Wates to start construction in July on the three planned buildings rising from 5 to 11-storeys.This follows design changes including reducing floor to floor levels from 4.1m to 3.6m after bids for the construction project initially came in over budget.The redesign process has put the project completion date back from 2018 to 2019, and still requires rubber stamping by planners.The 170,000 sq ft project, which will neighbour the West Yorkshire Playhouse, will include science labs, computing and digital technology labs, dance, art, and film studios, and a performance theatre.Plans also include a later 110,000 sq ft phase two, which has also been scaled down in height as part of the value-engineering process.Suffolk-based Jackson Civil Engineering is the site enablement contractor.