PLANS to restore Bradford’s grade II listed Conditioning House have helped specialist developer the Priestley Group pick up a prestigious prize at the UK Property Awards

The £8.5 million redevelopment scheme from the Leeds-based developer, which specialises in the regeneration of historic buildings, was named the Best Apartment Development in the Yorkshire region at the recent awards.

The firm also picked up the award for the Best Apartment Development in West Yorkshire for its £1m redevelopment of Hanover House in Leeds city centre.

The group’s estate agency arm, Priestley’s received the award for the Best Estate Agency in West Yorkshire, for its Elland Road site in Leeds.

The three awards were presented at ceremony at the Royal Lancaster hotel in London, attended by chief executive, Nathan Priestley, and team.

Mr Priestley said: “These awards reflect the incredibly talented, hard-working teams across our development, construction and estate agency divisions. To be recognised by such a prestigious awarding body is testament to the positive, lasting impact we’re making on the region and beyond.

“This year has been huge for the Priestley Group; our development pipeline surpasses £100million and we have a construction order book of more than £40million. With record turnovers expected for each of the companies in the group over the next three years, we’re well on the way to building on our successes.”

Work began last month on Conditioning House near Bradford city centre.

The building has been standing empty for three decades and in May planning permission was received to redeveloped the historic building for residential and commercial use.

The Cape Street building will be turned into a total of 133 one, two and three-bedroom apartments.

There will also be a residents’ gym and cafe, as well as 1,350 square metres of managed office space for local businesses.

An 18-month programme of work has begun and is being carried out by the developer’s contracting arm, Priestley Construction.

Construction will secure about 100 on-site jobs as well as supporting a further 500 jobs locally through suppliers.

When planning permission was granted, Mr Priestley told the T&A: “Conditioning House has been empty for 30 years, so we’re very happy our plans to transform it into a thriving community have been approved by the council.

“Once completed, we believe the development will be one of the best Bradford has to offer, providing high quality living spaces and extra amenities that raise the benchmark for urban living.

"We can’t wait to launch this development to market for locals and buy-to-let investors alike.”

Conditioning House was built by the council in 1902 as a wool testing centre through a special Act of Parliament in 1887.

Almost 70 per cent of all wool produced in the UK was brought there for testing prior to use.

The Priestley Group has its headquarters in Leeds and the firm launched a London office in October 2018 to support major growth plans and developments in the pipeline of more than 700 homes across 20 major schemes.