Development at Abbey Meadows is hotting up, with plans for a new car showroom at Abbey Meadows West – the £60 million Science Park and housing development near the National Space Centre – being unveiled.

 

The showroom is being built on Abbey Lane to replace Audi’s current premises on Blackbird Road, freeing up that site for redevelopment. It will also contain a car service centre.

 

Work on the development is set to begin next month (June) and to be completed in January.

 

Work has begun on the core of the Abbey Meadows West development this month (May) with construction of a new access road between Exploration Drive and the A6. The development by Ingleby, a joint venture between Leicester-based Sowden Group and Loughborough-based William Davis, which will include offices and new waterside homes as well as seven acres of science park plots and the car showroom, is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs.

 

John Nicholls, chief executive of Leicester Regeneration Company, said: “The plans for the car showroom look great. Abbey Meadows West has moved from the planning phase into construction, and I am looking forward to seeing it taking shape.”

 

Elsewhere, work is underway on other areas of Leicester’s regeneration masterplan.

 

At the Waterside, the first phase of apartments at Metropolitan Housing Partnership’s Leicester Square development are now sold out, with the remaining apartments selling fast.  Apartments in the development can be bought under shared ownership, giving a helping hand to first time buyers in the city.

 

In the New Business Quarter, the first stage of Colton Square is on course to complete this month (May). The first stage represents 50,000 square feet of grade A office space, with the ground floor already let to business advisers Cooper Parry.

 

In the Retail Core, at Highcross Leicester, work to construct a covered walkway to link The Shires shopping centre extension and a new multi-storey car park is well underway. The main structure of the major new John Lewis store is now becoming visible. It will eventually be covered with glass panels featuring a textiles and hosiery theme that reflect Leicester’s manufacturing heritage. Highcross Leicester will bring an additional 300,000 square feet of shopping space to the city when it opens in Autumn 2008.