BRADFORD Council hopes a long delayed project to create a “premier destination for businesses” in the heart of Bradford may finally be moving forward after years of developer apathy.

Plans for the One City Park development, which included a series of “Grade A” office buildings, totalling 95,000 square foot, on the site of the former Tyrls Police Station were first revealed in 2014.

At the time it was suggested the development could bring around 450 jobs into the city centre.

But since then there has been little visible progress on the site, and last year it was revealed that in three years the multi million pound project had failed to attract a developer.

But Bradford Council says the project is back on track, and that over the summer it will be searching for a development partner that will be able to meet the scheme’s targeted 2021 completion date.

A new report detailing the progress of One City Park reveals that next month the Council is planning to issue a notice in the Official Journal of the European Union of its intentions to tender for a partner to develop the scheme with.

They will award a contract for the development next April, and construction is expected to start in April 2020.

The report, by Director of Place at the Council, Steve Hartley, says construction is expected to end in 2021.

The Council had bought the vacant police station for £1 from the Homes and Communities Agency in 2013, and secured outline planning consent for the offices.

It was awarded a grant of £5.2 million form the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to prepare and market the site. The grant was awarded on the basis that the construction of the scheme will be completed by the end of March 2021.

So far £400,000 has been spent on the site.

The Council cleared the plot to install a temporary garden - but was relying on private investors to come in and build the office blocks themselves. Developers did not come forward and in November the Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee was told that there had been no interest from developers.

However, the Council said it would still push forward with the scheme, which has been a major part of its city centre regeneration plans for over 15 years.

In 2003 the development was first put forward in the Alsop master plan for the city centre, and it was further developed as a proposal in the “Bowl Neighbourhood Development Framework” in 2005, which would have seen it become part of a ‘Business Forest’ of developments stretching out from City Park.

Most recently it was included in the Bradford City Centre Area Action Plan, a document that details planned projects in the city centre until 2030. The plan highlights the high hopes Bradford Council has for the site, saying it will be “the premier destination for business headquarters currently located within or outside the Bradford District.”

Councillor Simon Cooke, the former Conservative leader on the Council, said: “I’m becoming increasingly sceptical about the viability of this scheme. We will be flattening Jacob’s Well before we have anyone signed up to move into that development, we have the tax office relocating out of the city centre and there are other half empty office buildings over the road. The last thing we really need is more empty office buildings. You question if they are trying to push it forward just because of the WYCA funding deadline.

“I think this project had the right ambition, but I don’t think we are doing anyone any favours if we push forward with schemes if there is no demand. Maybe we should stop and take a breath and re-think this.”

A Bradford Council spokesman said: “This is a positive step forward as we progress towards identifying a preferred development partner for One City Park, subject to Executive approval.

“It’s a key site with exciting possibilities and it forms part of our wider plan for driving forward the city centre’s resurgence with private sector investors.”

The update will be discussed by the Council’s Regeneration and Environment Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting, in City Hall on Tuesday at 5.30pm.

A decision to progress the scheme will then go before the Council’s Executive next month.