AN ICONIC shopping centre is being demolished to make way for a major redevelopment plan that will create 809 new flats.
Huge machinery has been sent to the city centre to tear down the 39-year-old shopping site, reports Yorkshire Live.
The Core Shopping Centre has been a staple of Leeds since it opened, home to popular names like Matalan and New Look.
It first opened in 1987 and was formerly known as the Headrow Shopping Centre.
But after the Trinity and Victoria Gate shopping centres opened their doors in the city in the mid 2010s, The Core struggled to fill its retail space.
The shopping centre’s investors, Tri7 and Fusion, sent plans to Leeds City Council in May 2023 to demolish and redevelop the site.
The council approved the plan in March 2024 and the last tenants of The Core, like Poundland and FootAsylum, departed from the site in January 2025.
As the shopping centre closed its doors, demolition work began for the new development named Garnet Exchange.
The project will revamp the site and replace it with three new buildings comprising of 36,500 sq ft of retail space on the ground floor.
Restaurants, pubs, retail outlets and other facilities will be available for shoppers to browse at the site.
The floors above the retail space will be made up of 809 student flats with communal areas.
All three buildings will be connected by a glazed bridge, allowing residents to access the other blocks without exiting the building.
