Final approval for first phase of Sheffield Retail Quarter

City councillors today approved the planning application for the six-storey office block, which will become the new Sheffield home of banking giant HSBC.

The development, on the site of the old Grosvenor House Hotel - currently being demolished - will also include shops at the ground level and a new public area where Charter Square roundabout sits.

A planning application for the rest of the retail quarter has yet to be submitted.

Speaking at this afternoon's planning and highways meeting, Coun Peter Rippon said: “Naturally with any development you are going to get some dissention, but what we are ending up with is going to be a first class area.”

Coun Peter Price said it would be a ‘tremendous’ addition to the city centre, adding: “This is the first piece of the jigsaw of the new retail quarter.”

Coun Jack Clarkson raised concerns about parking and traffic in the area - although he was assured by officers that all measures had been taken to minimise disruption.

But he said it was ‘nice to know’ HSBC was staying in Sheffield.

And Coun Andrew Sangar said: “This does look like a very high quality project. I’m really pleased that we have got an anchor tenant and a major financial company staying here.”

HSBC has signed a 15-year lease on the new building, which will in total house more than 3,000 employees - of which more than 2,700 will work for the bank.

The firm is in the process of shutting its Hoyle Street offices this year, moving workers to its existing Griffin House building, where the lease expires in 2019.

Today’s top stories:

Flood warnings in place with further rain expected across South Yorkshire

Rail users face delays on trains between Sheffield and Manchester

Emergency services at scene of pile up on South Yorkshire motorway

Revealed: Sheffield set for some of the worst Black Friday queues in the country

Killer who suffered satan fantasies is jailed after drowning auntie and strangling grandmother

Drunk driver who killed Sheffield cyclist in hit and run released after just two years

Sheffield United: Why the blades can count on Leon Clarke