The Trinity Leeds shopping and leisure complex will be opened by city council leader Keith Wakefield
A new £350m shopping and leisure development will open its doors for business in Leeds later. The 1,000,000 sq ft (92,900 sq m) Trinity shopping centre is expected to create 3,000 jobs.
Up bright and early at @trinityleeds on @lizgreenlive – let’s see what all the fuss is about eh? twitter.com/Leedsloveaffai…
— Leeds Love Affair (@Leedsloveaffair) March 21, 2013
The glass-domed centre will be opened in a ceremony due to start at 08:30 GMT. Developer Land Securities, said 90% of units were pre-let. Work restarted on Trinity Leeds in 2010 after construction was put on hold for 16 months because of the recession. Land Securities said Armani Exchange and Victoria’s Secret were the among the chains to take space in the centre.
The domed glass roof covers the shopping streets below In January, the firm said it had “achieved a major milestone in leasing as Trinity Leeds, the largest retail and leisure development under construction in the UK”.
“Trinity Leeds has been designed to be one of the most digitally advanced shopping centres in the UK with free wi-fi, assistants with internet-connected iPads and large video walls operated by gesture recognition”.
Andrew Dudley, from the developer, said: “We estimate 3,000 jobs in the completed scheme and more than three-quarters of those will be new jobs to Leeds.” He said despite concern following the failure of a number of high-street chains , the company was very positive about the success of the Trinity scheme. The scheme has been designed to provide a series of covered streets designed to integrate the site with the current layout of the city centre.
This pic @trinityleeds taken at the heavenly Angelica restaurant @angelicaleeds. See @yorkshirepost magazine today. twitter.com/yorkshirefashQ…
— Stephanie Smith (@yorkshirefashQ) March 16, 2013