Network Rail and Homes England have chosen real estate developers McLaren Property and Arlington Real Estate as their preferred developers for a multimillion-pound regeneration project in York, UK.

The £650m ($818.61m) York Central development is said to be one of the UK’s largest city centre regeneration projects.

It is being developed via a collaboration between Network Rail, Homes England, the City of York Council, and the National Railway Museum.

Network Rail property director Robin Dobson said: “This is a strategic step forward in the regeneration of over 110 acres of underused railway land to deliver significant investment and social value for the city and region.”

The project aims to transform the 45ha of vacant railway land into residential communities, cultural spaces, a public realm, and a commercial quarter.

Initial infrastructure improvement works, worth £135m, on the brownfield site are already underway. These works comprise more than 3km of new roads, walkways, and cycleways, as well as two new bridges across the East Coast Main Line.

The York Central project is expected to improve the local economy by creating up to 6,500 jobs and generating more than £1.1bn in gross value added to the York economy annually.

Homes England CEO Peter Denton said: “Over the last few years, Homes England and Network Rail have worked closely with City of York Council to create a vision and master plan and have invested in the critical infrastructure to make this a reality.

"It will now be delivered at pace through our chosen development partner for long-term delivery and stewardship.”

York Central will feature approximately 2,500 houses, 20% of which will be earmarked as affordable, along with one million square feet of office, retail, and hospitality space.