New Era Square will include student flats, shops and offices, as well as a Chinese supermarket and business centre

Sheffield New Era Square

Sheffield council has given the go-ahead to a Chinese-backed £65m mixed-use development close to the city centre.

Work is expected to start on New Era Square – a 21-storey leisure, commercial and residential development between London Road and Bramall Lane – in July this year.

The project will include retail units, food and drink outlets on the ground floor, leading out to an open-air square for events. A large Chinese supermarket will span two levels.

On the first floor, there will be office space for professional service businesses, an exhibition hall and a China business incubator to enhance enterprise and trade between China and the UK.

From the third floor there will be about 700 student accommodation units.

The project, which has received significant investment from China, will create more than 400 jobs once construction has been completed.

New Era Development, the Sheffield-based company behind the project, said it would create a “cosmopolitan, international, multicultural square, which is available to all”.

In the report to the planning committee, officers described the scheme as “a high-quality and significant development at a highly sustainable and prominent gateway location on the edge of the city centre”.