Innovative Leeds apartment block lures middle-income ‘singles’ to live in the city

Embargo: for publication after 11am Thursday 7th September 2000
Innovative Leeds apartment block lures middle-income ‘singles’ to live in the city

A pioneering apartment block that has been purpose-designed to attract single people on middle incomes to live in the centre of Leeds was formally opened today by Alan Howarth MP, Minister for the Arts, responsible for architecture and the built environment.

Known as CASPAR – City-centre Apartments for Single People at Affordable Rents – the crescent-shaped block of 45 flats is a demonstration project developed by the York-based Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The site on the north side of the city centre was previously a car park owned by Leeds City Council, which has backed the project from the outset. The innovative design by architects Levitt Bernstein was the winning entry in a competition to plan an attractive building that would encourage economically-active single people to make the city centre their home.

Use of advanced, pre-fabrication techniques has enabled the five-storey block to be built quickly to a high specification that includes triple glazing and more space than is usual in one-bedroom flats. It has also enabled the Foundation to meet another important objective of securing a commercial return for its investment while keeping basic rents to around £100 a week.

Richard Best, the Foundation’s director, said: “The CASPAR initiative is our way of proving to the private sector that it is possible to deliver well-designed, city centre developments at reasonable rents, while still offering investors a commercial return.

“The spending power and creativity of single people and childless couples on middle incomes is just what we need to spearhead a renaissance in neglected inner cities. The trouble is that they tend not to be poor enough to qualify for subsidised ‘social’ housing, nor rich enough to afford high-priced private apartments for sale. The Leeds CASPAR shows that this problem has a solution and that there is no shortage of demand once the flats are put on the market.”

The striking red cladding of the rainscreen around the Leeds apartments is timber. The roof is made of stainless steel sheeting.

Another distinctive feature is an exterior lighting scheme which will ensure the building becomes a landmark by night.

Each unit in the CASPAR development was factory-built by Volumetric, a supplier specialising in pre-fabrication, and transported to the site half-assembled and half in a flat pack. Kajima UK, the contractors, were able to install the apartments by crane. As a result, the first apartment went on show just 66 days after the site was purchased and the building contract signed.

The total cost of the development is around £3 million. No subsidies were received. A unit cost of just under £70,000 per apartment generates a return on capital invested of 6.1 per cent a year, index-linked, with the expectation of significant capital gains.

Richard Best said: “We know from a research study on migration that the Foundation published two weeks ago that people are drifting away from our cities. CASPAR developments are intended to help reverse this trend. If they succeed, greenfield sites elsewhere will be saved and congestion due to commuter traffic will be reduced.

He added: “The image of urban living will certainly change if the CASPAR model catches on. In keeping with the lifestyles of those who rent apartments in the major American and European cities, the CASPAR concept should help this country to meet the housing and urban development needs of the new century.”

Note to Editors

The Leeds apartments block is the second of two CASPARs developed by Joseph Rowntree Foundation. CASPAR I, in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter, is built to a different design and opened in March this year.

Further information about the CASPAR demonstration projects, including photographs, can be found in the CASPAR section here.

Other related press releases:

For further information, contact:

Roland Crooke (JRF Housing Operations Director) 01904 615914
Richard Best (JRF Director) 01904 615901
David Utting (Head of Media Relations) 020 7278 9665