Tesco tables plans for £120m of developments in Huddersfield

Feb 20 2010 by Henryk Zientek, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Tesco tables plans for £120m of developments

RETAILER Tesco has revealed more details of its ambitious £120m plans to build a new store and redevelop its existing site in Huddersfield.

The supermarket giant has tabled three separate planning applications to cover the building of its new store at the junction of Leeds Road and Southgate; the demolition of its existing store at Viaduct Street; and the development of a complex on that site to include offices, apartments, restaurants and bars, shops and a hotel.

An 18-page document supporting the new mixed use development, said the scheme would meet the needs of the local community and visitors to Huddersfield as well as “promote the vitality of the site and the town centre”.

It claimed redeveloping the site – which is part of the town centre conservation area – would bring more jobs, provide a new “landmark building” for the town and create “an opportunity for significant investment” in Huddersfield.

The site currently occupied by Tesco’s 1970s-built store is bounded by Brook Street behind the open market, Viaduct Street and Castlegate.

The scheme envisages six blocks of buildings providing shops, restaurants, a hotel, offices and private and social housing.

It includes a nine-storey block on the corner of Brook Street and Castlegate to provide ground floor shops and 48 two-bedroom residential flats on the remaining floors.

Residential units would also be provided in a second block behind the first and fronting Castlegate to provide a further 28 one-bed and 28 two-bedroom flats. A central surface car park would extend under this block on ground level.