International acclaim is within Leeds’ grasp, even if its football team doesn’t deliver, industry captains told an audience at Estates Gazette’s Leeds Question Time
“Doing a Leeds” in football terms has come to represent missing out on the Champions League final despite heavy investment, then suffering financial implosion, relegation and administration.
If Leeds United’s failure was due to poor leadership, the city’s property professionals are hoping a similar demise won’t befall their sector.
Although having a Premier League football team wouldn’t hurt when it comes to selling the city to international investors, the panellists agreed at EG’s Leeds Question Time on 28 April.
“I would like us to have more international representation, a recognisable figure,” said Simon Sherwood, partner at law firm Mills & Reeve.
“Whether that’s someone from local government or even from private business, I think it is incumbent on all of us, everyone with businesses in Leeds, to promote. I don’t think we do enough of that.”
Leeds may not have the same international brand power Manchester has with its two Premier League teams. Indeed, the Chinese president Xi Jinping is believed to be a supporter of Manchester City.
But, speaking at The Leeds Club to a gathering of industry professionals, the panellists were adamant that doesn’t mean it lacks the potential to compete on the global stage.
Tech city
Sky’s director of digital platforms, Matt Grest, said Leeds came out on top in a global analysis for access to skills. Grest, who has led Sky’s launch of a 61,000 sq ft technology hub at Allied London’s Leeds Dock, said: “We put a pin on the map, we did a one-hour commute radius around Leeds and we asked, within that area, could we get access to the skills we needed? The answer was yes.”
The city is positioning itself as a centre for IT and digital, and there is an increasing trend of professionals moving to Leeds from London to benefit from cheaper rents and less expensive travel, he said. The tech hub will create 400 highly skilled jobs in Leeds.
“Let’s not be modest about the fact that Leeds is a fantastic place to live and work.”
Retail capital
Like all the cities under the northern powerhouse umbrella, Leeds is trying to work out what its selling point will be within the combined growth zone.
With Hammerson’s £150m Victoria Gate shopping centre due to open in autumn 2016, following on from the launch of Land Securities’ £378m Trinity Leeds retail complex in 2013, the city is in the running to become the retail capital of the north.
John Lewis’s head of property Jeremy Collins said the decision was made in the “teeth of the recession” to open a city centre store at Victoria Gate due to Leeds’ identified “latent capacity”.
“What Leeds is starting to build is an abundance of other reasons to visit, and I’m sure tourism will be an increasingly important part of a successful retail destination,” Collins said.
John Lewis has committed to an active role in the local Business Improvement District, which Collins said would play a role in ensuring Trinity and Victoria Gate work together to make the city centre a nationally competitive shopping hub.
“Lots of people will come to the city, whether for the first time ever or the first time, in a long time when we open,” Collins said. “The question is whether they will come back, and that will depend on the quality of experience they have.”
Adam Key, director of planning at Savills Leeds, said the city needed two things to ensure its success as a retail capital – city centre car parking, and efforts to prevent it from becoming a “clone town”. The key to a thriving retail experience was creating a sense of place, public realm, restaurants and bars, he said. But he warned that removing car parking to make way for those elements was a mistake.
“You have to allow for people to come in”, he said. “Leeds needs to be careful about that.”
Future powerhouse?
Chinese conglomerate Hualing’s backing of developer Scarborough’s £500m Thorpe Park, announced in October, was a mega-deal the industry hopes will spur on future investment from overseas.
It came after Legal & General Capital struck a £162m deal in August 2015 to buy a 50% share of the 200-acre development.
Rachel Dickie, investment manager within L&G’s urban regeneration team, said the pension fund was “very committed” to Leeds. In total, it has around £200m assets under management in the region through its fund management business. It has also recently committed to its first factory for a modular housing business just outside Leeds, which represents a £55m investment.
Market uncertainty caused by the EU referendum was causing problems for investment, she conceded, but added that it wasn’t necessarily the case for her department, which is investing shareholder money. The panel was united in having confidence in the government’s northern powerhouse agenda.
“But it’s all about the people on the ground, businesses that are there, councils, to make it happen,” Dickie said.
Now Leeds just needs to make sure it is on the Chinese president’s agenda on his next UK visit. A Leeds United match included, of course.
• To send feedback, e-mail louisa.clarence-smith@estatesgazette.com or tweet @LouisaClarence or @estatesgazette
