The Harworth Group has sold the freehold interest in the 27-acre Plot 1 development in Leeds to Microsoft for £52.9 million.
The deal of Plot 1 has been selected by a panel of local industry professionals to be a winner of the CoStar Impact Awards Sale/Acquisition of the Year for Yorkshire and Humberside.
With a location at Skelton Grange site in Leeds, the site's new guise started in August 2024 when Leeds City Council granted Harworth planning permission for five industrial units totalling up to 74,057 square metres for a data centre.
Harworth said construction is due to be completed in October 2028.
The firm added that the construction team has “completed the first phase of the 48-acre land sale. […] Their technical teams are now fully mobilised and initial site works are underway.”
It added Harworth will continue to work closely with Microsoft and other key stakeholders on the full remediation and servicing of the site to enable the second tranche of the sale, which remains on track for the first half of 2026.
About the project:
Skelton Grange has the most challenging ground conditions of any of Harworth’s sites and is an example of the value it delivers as a regenerator of brownfield land through optimising masterplans, deploying timely and effective investments into remediation and infrastructure and creating schemes that attract a range of industries.
Harworth will retain 6.47 hectares, which will comprise 23,226 square metres of employment space, and 31.2 hectares owned through joint venture Aire Valley Land. Servicing of Plot 1 will be completed by Harworth as development manager under a separate development agreement, which will now start alongside servicing works to support the sale of plot 2.
What the judges said:
Dan Burn, head of development, Northwest and Yorkshire, Panattoni UK Developments, said: "Another significant brownfield transaction, reshaping industrial land for data-centre use. This was one of three data centre deals in the region last year, proving that these sort of deals are not exclusively in the South East,” while Stuart Howie, managing director, Leeds, Avison Young, said “in an very strong category, this deal stood out for tackling challenging site conditions and facilitating essential data-centre capacity that will help support regional economic growth, whilst maximising value. A great deal for the vendor, the acquirer and the region.
They made it happen:
Simon Dove, partner, DHP; Tom Asher, director, Savills ; Dave Robinson, partner, Cushman & Wakefield ; Harry Fullerton, director, JLL; Matt Smith, developer manager, Harworth Group.