A city centre site that was due to be the heart of a £350 million development has just come on the market.

The land, off Holdsworth Street between Canal Road and Forster Square Retail Park, will be familiar to some Bradford residents as the site where a travelling fairground regularly sets up.

But before the 2008 economic crash, it was the centre of one of the most ambitious regeneration schemes in Bradford’s recent history.

First proposed in 2005, the Bradford Canal development would have seen a new canal basin created on the site, and a new waterway linking Bradford and Shipley.

The basin would be flanked by a development of 1,800 flats, a hotel, offices, shops, restaurants and leisure space – completely transforming that area of the city centre.

The developers behind the proposals, Bradford Channel Ltd, decided to mothball the scheme in 2008 due to the economic recession – which saw property markets across the world collapse.

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At the time, the company said they would "bide their time" until the market picked up before deciding how to progress with the site.

But 15 years later the 1.6 acre Holdsworth Street site remains empty, despite being in a prime location -just a few minutes walk from the Broadway Shopping Centre and Forster Square Rail Station.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: The site now on the marketThe site now on the market (Image: newsquest)

The land has recently been put on the market for an annual rent of £100,000, and is listed as “car park land or investment/development land.”

Estate Agent Mark Brearley said although the site owner would prefer to let the site, they would also consider offers to buy it.

He said there was interest in the site, but it was still “early days.”

The land is a former British Gas depot, and other than the regular fair has only been used for car parking or storage in recent years.

A planning application to turn the land into a temporary car park was granted by Bradford Council in 2018. One condition was that this use would have to cease by the end of 2024.

The site is also part of a wider area of land included in Bradford Council’s City Centre Area Action Plan – a document that sets out where future housing and regeneration schemes should be based.

This site is part of an area “East of Valley Road” that is earmarked for residential development, including “tall buildings of high quality design.”

The plan suggests 600 homes could be built in the area, and estimates the development would take place between 2025 and 2030.