Project launch
Forty million pound Leeds office conversion under way with Willmott Dixon
By Staff Writer | 27 August 2026
Work has started on a 40 million pound refurbishment of Princes Exchange, an eight storey office building beside Leeds station, which will become a rail industry hub. The infrastructure owner published the announcement on 27 August 2026 and states that the project is funded by the Department for Transport and Network Rail and is being delivered by Network Rail and Platform4, working with contractor Willmott Dixon.
The building runs to 108,576 square feet and has stood empty. Network Rail bought it in 2024 and the announcement records completion as expected in June 2027.
The client's stated purpose is to bring track and train colleagues in Leeds together in one location, with energy efficiency, sustainability and digital connectivity described as being at the heart of the development.
The redevelopment of Princes Exchange will breathe new life into what is already an iconic building in a prime city location. We're proud to be providing upgraded space for Network Rail and train operator colleagues to support them to deliver great service for rail passengers in the north, while opening up this iconic property to the wider market.
Andrew Banks, finance director, Network Rail
The scope is envelope work on an existing frame
The published scope is refurbishment rather than reconstruction, and almost all of it is on the outside of the building. It covers the main entrance and external facade refurbishment, including replacing all windows and the roof. It covers public realm work to improve the space outside the building, which faces the station's Aire Street entrance. Inside, it covers a dedicated rail hub entrance and reception with new staff welfare facilities, and amenities at basement level including cycle storage and changing facilities.
Replacing every window and the roof on an eight storey building in a city centre, next to a working station and above a public realm scheme, is a sequencing problem before it is a construction one. On the published material the building has stood empty since before the 2024 purchase, which removes the hardest of those constraints.
Five of the eight floors are being built for a market that has not signed yet
The occupancy split is published. Network Rail and rail industry partners will take three floors. The remaining five are being fitted out to be commercially let from mid 2027.
That is the commercial risk on the scheme stated plainly by the client. Three floors have a certain occupier and a defined brief. Five floors are being finished to a specification set before any tenant is known, for a letting market roughly a year after the completion date. Fit out specifications written in that position tend to be either generic, which costs money twice when a tenant arrives with its own requirements, or committed, which narrows the pool of tenants who will take the space as built.
Working to maximise the value of rail land for both the railway and for wider public benefit is exactly what Platform4 was set up to do. At Princes Exchange, we've worked with Network Rail and our other partners not only to deliver landmark office space for colleagues and businesses but also to unlock critical land, enabling rail growth in Leeds.
Andrew Ferguson, interim chief executive, Platform4
Carbon and social value are stated as expectations, not as commitments
The announcement records that sustainable reuse of furniture and materials from the site is expected to save around 80 tonnes of carbon and provide 10,000 pounds worth of donated equipment to charitable organisations. It states the project is targeting EPC A and BREEAM Excellent accreditation, alongside two further schemes named in the notes to editors.
Both numbers are given as expectations rather than as measured outcomes, and no baseline is published against which the 80 tonnes is calculated. On a strip out of an empty eight storey office building, the reuse figure will turn on what is actually in the building on the day the contractor takes possession, which is a matter for the pre-construction survey rather than for a launch announcement.
The social value description has the same shape. The scheme is said to deliver apprenticeships, work experience placements, educational activities and support for community projects. No numbers are attached to any of the four, and the announcement does not say whether they are contractual commitments carrying a measurement obligation or statements of intent. On a publicly funded refurbishment let to a main contractor, that distinction decides whether they survive the first programme pressure, and the contract itself is not published.
Platform4 is Network Rail's property development company, and the second quotation goes further than an estates rationale. It describes the exercise as unlocking land for rail growth in Leeds, which places the office move alongside the wider question of capacity at and around the station rather than treating it as an accommodation decision on its own.