Final piece for Riverside in place

St Paul’s Developments hopes the Phoenix Riverside business park, in Templeborough, Rotherham, will bring “positive contributions to the local economy” as well as a number of new jobs.

The opening of Greene King’s new Hungry Horse pub and restaurant, called Riverside, marks the completion of the scheme which came after the regeneration specialist identified the six-acre site as prime for commercial development some years ago.

The site is strategically placed with its prominent frontage on to Sheffield Road and proximity to both Rotherham town centre and Junction 34 of the M1.

The local developer created 26,000 sq ft of offices which are now let to Rotherham Council, the Royal Mencap Society, In-Tend Ltd and St Paul’s itself.

The recent sale of the 1.5-acre adjacent plot to Green King for the creation of the Riverside Hungry Horse has brought a leading national chain to the locality, creating about 60 new jobs.

St Paul’s Developments says the new Hungry Horse will be a welcome amenity for the surrounding area and businesses located around it.

David Newton, managing director of St Paul’s Developments, said: “Phoenix Riverside has been an interesting scheme given that the office units were speculatively developed with the support of Objective One funding prior to the downturn.

“We always firmly believed that this strategic site could play an important part in the overall regeneration of the Rotherham area and our initial vision has now been realised.

“There has been a significant amount of investment into the Sheffield Road area in recent years and as a result, this major arterial route has become home to some major new occupiers bringing with them positive contributions to the economy and new jobs for people of Rotherham.

“Developers have had to show a lot of grit and tenacity to bring schemes to fruition and we are incredibly proud to have signalled the completion of Phoenix Riverside as a job creating mixed-use development.”

St Paul’s Developments was formed in 1987 to buy and reclaim the 180-acre disused Cortonwood Colliery site in Rotherham, and helped transform it into a giant retail park.

Over the last decade the developer has transformed more than 300 acres of brownfield land into flagship, job-creating schemes.

One development alone, Brookfields Park, secured some 1,800 jobs for South Yorkshire.

The developer often works in partnership with local authorities and land owners to bring redundant sites to life and its sites have attracted inward investments of more than £1.5bn, primarily in Yorkshire.

It has created developments that have focused on sectors such as manufacturing and logistics. Earlier this year, it was announced that St Paul’s Developments had signed an agreement with the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to create a 750,000 sq ft logistics hub on a 44-acre enterprise zone site near Rotherham.

The HCA appointed St Paul’s as its partner to deliver the industrial and warehousing scheme, which is known as 31 East.

The development stands on a site in Todwick Road, Dinnington, South Yorkshire, which was used by the coal industry, until it went into decline in the late 1980s. St Paul’s hopes that around 750 people would be working on the site within the next five to seven years.