Lloyds refinances Sheffield mixed-use development

Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking has written a £23 million loan to refinance a mixed-use development located in Sheffield.

The bank has provided the three-year finance to Barnsley-based developer Dransfield Properties to fund its recently-opened Fox Valley scheme in north Sheffield. Fox Valley comprises 144,000 square feet of retail and leisure space as well as 60,000 square feet of offices and 118 homes, located on the site of a former steelworks.

Lloyds is the existing lender to the £50 million scheme. The bank provided a £10 million development loan to Dransfield back in 2014 to fund the project’s initial construction. The facility was subsequently extended last October to £17.3 million to finance the second phase of the scheme.

Dransfield also received an investment of £8 million from the Yorkshire and Humber European Reegional Development Fund Programme 2007- 2013, which is managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government, to bring forward the Fox Valley project.

Dransfield will use the new loan to repay the existing development facilities and to provide working capital for Fox Valley over the next few years.

The first phase of Fox Valley opened in June. Tenants also include Cornish fashion brand Seasalt, mother and baby store JoJo Maman Bebe and the first multi-brand store from The Edinburgh Woollen Mills. Ponti’s Italian Kitchen has chosen Fox Valley for its first restaurant outside London. The scheme also features an Aldi store which replaced Tesco as one of the scheme’s anchor tenants last year.

“Fox Valley has created a new community, transforming a previously disused industrial site and creating hundreds of new jobs. It is a great example of the kind of transformational development projects we like to back and I’m pleased that we’re now supporting the next chapter in its story,” said Tom Cross, relationship director at Lloyds Bank Commercial Real Estate.

In March, Lloyds appointed a new head of UK regions for its commercial real estate unit. Allan MacKenzie, who has worked within Lloyds Banking Group for more than 30 years, joined from the bank’s listed clients team. He relocated from London to Manchester and is responsible for all UK regions.