North East property and energy firm The Banks Group has traded up to a prestigious new Yorkshire address.
Banks has taken a new office at Harewood Yard, close to Harewood House, as it looks to increase its project portfolio across the county.
The family-owned firm recently added development surveyor David Lynskey and development planner Joe Perkins to its Yorkshire-based team and is expecting to create further new local jobs later this year.
The new office, which is located in a converted Grade II-listed building, will also be used by members of the Banks team who live in different parts of Yorkshire, as well as by colleagues from its County Durham headquarters who are working on local projects.
The Banks Group has a long track record of successful Yorkshire developments across its property, renewable energy and minerals businesses, operates four onshore wind farms across the county which last year generated enough green electricity between them to meet the annual power needs of more than 31,500 homes, and has also previously developed housing schemes in Sheffield, Harrogate and Leeds.
It currently has residential property developments comprising more than 2,000 homes either in the planning system or draft allocated in Local Plans in various local authority areas around the county.
It is also looking at options for deploying new renewable energy generation technologies in a number of sites across the county and is expecting a decision on its planning application for the first of these projects, the proposed 40MW Barnsdale solar energy park to the south east of Leeds, to follow in the near future.
The new office was secured with the support of Carter Jonas & Wrigleys in Leeds, who acted for the Harewood Estate, while the Leeds office of law firm Ward Hadaway assisted Banks with securing the lease.
Rob Ormrod, senior land manager at Banks Property, says: “The quality of the office matches our ambitions in Yorkshire, and despite all the challenges that the pandemic has brought, it’s an exciting time to be making this move.
“As we hopefully return to working more from the office in the coming months, Harewood Yard will provide an excellent base with good transport links road links and also offers the room for expansion that we’ll need as our presence in Yorkshire develops.
“The Banks Group already has extensive experience of working right across Yorkshire, and we have a clear strategy in place for increasing our footprint around the county in the years to come.”