Scheme that is bound to get admiring looks (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Scheme that is bound to get admiring looks

10:38am Wednesday 13th October 2010 in Linda Pollard By Linda Pollard

There is something happening in Bradford’s Learning Quarter which is putting the city on the international stage, but few Bradfordians know about it because it is surrounded by fencing.

Bradford University’s ground-breaking £150 million Listerhills sustainable student accommodation scheme, now named The Green, has received the first BREEAM (an environmental award for buildings) for outstanding student accommodation in the UK, and has also been named the first-ever European university to win an International Sustainable campus award.

The Green, which will open next September, will provide accommodation for more than 1,000 students and play a huge part in attracting them to city.

This scheme represents the largest single-value development in the region, and is the largest project of its type, in terms of occupancy, ever to be carried out in a single phase – and it’s happening in Bradford.

The £48m scheme is an excellent example of partnership between the developers, Listerhills Sustainable Student Village Ltd, a joint venture between Mi7 Developments Ltd and Wellbeck Land Ltd, working in unison with Yorkshire Forward and Bradford University, who contributed £1.75 million.

The Green sits within the wider Listerhills Development and marks the beginning of a bigger master plan. Alongside the student accommodation, planning permission has been obtained to deliver managed workspace, academic, retail and healthcare facilities and an extensive public realm.

Some of you may think, why is this important to me – I’m not a student? But it’s what it will do for Bradford – it will make outsiders stand up and take notice. It will bring students to our city, with money and financial investment to follow.

It is estimated that, once complete, The Green has the capacity to create up to 700 new jobs, and this is just the start – it will have a positive impact on Bradford’s economy for years to come.