WORKMEN have raised the roof on a £11.5m property development in Huddersfield.

The scheme to create the University of Huddersfield’s new Enterprise and Innovation Centre (EIC) is well under way at Firth Street.

The work involves radical remodelling of an old industrial building, named Larchfield, which most recently saw service as part of the university’s Business School.

The building will get an extra tier and a large glass atrium as it is converted into a centre for innovative businesses.

It will provide close links to the university’s cutting-edge scientific research that aims to provide a boost to the regional economy.

As part of the development, the roof of Larchfield was removed, exposing giant timber trusses dating back more than a century.

They have found their way to a company that will find a good use for them – by using the timber to create stylish designer furniture.

A new steel frame is now being installed. To provide support for this, special foundations had to be dug using a miniature piling rig inside the shell of the building.

“This was a tricky operation, but successfully handled,” said Alan Johnson, the university’s deputy director of estates and facilities, who is working with contractor GB Solutions, of Wakefield.

When it is completed in May next year the EIC will have space for up to 100 small business tenants and scope for large firms to establish strategic bases.

Mr Johnson said: “The ground floor will become an ‘innovation avenue’, where new ideas, equipment and technology will be showcased, alongside the university’s research in fields such as science, technology and business.”

The project, which could bring at least 100 jobs to the town, will see the building transformed to provide workshops, laboratories and rooms that small businesses can rent while they get off the ground.

The EIC has attracted funding of £6.4m from the European Regional Development Fund.

The university is contributing £3.8m and Kirklees Council is putting in £1.3m.

Larchfield was built in the 1860s by textile company boss George Brook on land alongside Firth Street and the River Colne.

The present building was just part of a complex which grew to include the main five-storey mill, four three-storey buildings, a two-storey weaving shed, warehousing as well as an engine house, boiler rooms and a 130ft square stone chimney.