A TOP property speculator is moving headquarters to York. JTM Developments Ltd, the Yorkshire firm which specialises in land acquisition for high-quality residential development and commercial investment, is planning to build its new home in Layerthorpe, York.

The £200,000 two-storey building in Little Hallfield Road is on the site of the former Club and Institutional Union (CIU) head office.

It is situated at the rear of the Layerthorpe Working Men's Club, which is being turned into 24 flats.

When JTM moves from its present base at Bowcliffe Hall, in Bramham, near Wetherby, towards the end of this year it will provide the CIU with ground floor offices in the new building on a 999 year lease.

JTM chairman John Cowling said: "York is a truly beautiful city and we really want to be located here. Good sites in York for new offices are pretty rare, so we were delighted when we got the chance to redevelop the former CIU head offices site."

The new JTM building has been designed by David McCormack, of Harrogate architects Studio Map Ltd. Batty France are the surveyors.

JTM is in the process of developing a number of residential sites in York and is negotiating the sale of a 1.2-acre site with derelict garages in Huntington Road, opposite the Nestl Rowntree factory.

It has already obtained planning consent for nine three storey town houses and 12 luxury apartments there.

A third of an acre site at Murrough Wilson Place, off Faversham Crescent, close to York Hospital, is also being sold with planning permission to turn 46 lock-up garages into 22 one and two-bedroom apartments and final offers are due to be received by June 19.

Updated: 09:07 Tuesday, May 27, 2003