A new arena and stadium are included amongst projects totalling more than £200m (€226.5m/$274.7m) for the further development of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park.
Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park was established after the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in an effort to deliver whole population improvements in health and wellbeing. It is said to be the world’s only Olympic legacy park outside a host city and plans for its future have now been spelled out.
A new Community Arena will complete the first £100m development phase of Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park. The arena is intended to become the new home of British Basketball League (BBL) team Sheffield Sharks.
The Sharks said they have been involved in talks in recent times seeking to establish a facility on the Olympic Legacy Park since the demolition of the Yorkshire city’s Don Valley Stadium in 2013. Sharks managing director, Sarah Backovic, said: “We are excited by the possibility of the community arena coming to fruition. Collaboration with key partners has got us ever closer to our goal.”
The arena will be home to a new, world-class diagnostic imaging lab and research centre for Canon Medical Systems Europe. The centre will deliver a state-of-the-art research hub for product development including Artificial Intelligence that promises to transform the speed and accuracy of diagnostics for the National Health Service (NHS).
Also included in this development phase is a 3,900-capacity community stadium which developer, Scarborough Group International (SGI), is due to deliver by February 2022. It will become the new home of Sheffield Eagles Championship rugby league team, and provide 23,000 sq ft of business and conference space.
SGI has now also produced a masterplan for the next five years which will see a further 850,000 sq ft of real estate development at Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park, which developers claim should attract investment of around £250m. The masterplan is expected to create over 5,600 high value jobs and generate over £2bn in GVA benefits.
The masterplan also includes the development of a National Centre for Child Health Technology (CCHT), which will be the first of its kind in the world and aims to position the UK as a global leader in paediatrics and child health.
Former UK Sports Minister and Park lead, Richard Caborn, said: “Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park continues to deliver a comprehensive approach to providing the solutions to the major healthcare and economic challenges of our times.
“It is a catalyst for investment and regeneration and attracting the very best translational research and development technologies and skills to the Sheffield City Region which will have a huge impact nationally and internationally.”
