A £56.5m, 20-acre joint development has launched on schedule in Castleford, Leeds.

Called Xscape and boasting the UK’s longest indoor real snow slope at 175m long, the mixed-use sports, leisure and retail development is expected to attract five million visitors during the first year.

The joint development of the second Xscape site was split between X-Leisure, the leisure property arm of Capital & Regional plc and Hanover Property Unit Trust.

It is fully expected to build upon the success of the first Xscape site in Milton Keynes, which opened in 2000 and, during its first year of opening, averaged 79,000 visitors a week while it will also provide over 800 new full and part time jobs.

With a catchment area of 7 million people within a 60 minute drive, of which 1.8m are ABCs, Xscape Castleford’s multiple leisure attractions include a slope fed by 1,500 tonnes of real snow, an indoor skate park, a 16m ice climbing wall, a 14 screen Cine UK complex and a 20-lane bowling alley.

The site has been 85 per cent pre-let while the various bars and restaurants will include Nandos, Frankie & Bennys and Lloyds No 1.

The next Xscape site target is Braehead in Glasgow, with site co-investors due to be confirmed within the next couple of weeks and work provisionally due to begin in September 2004.

There are also another four Xscape sites in the UK currently being considered, according to PY Gerbeau, CEO of Xscape’s parent company X-Leisure with the intention of creating a network of UK Xscape sites by early 2006.

Commenting on the launch of Xscape Castleford, PY Gerbeau said: “Xscape Castleford Leeds offers a complete mix of activities that will appeal to many different groups, including the youth market looking for extreme action day and night.”

On the success of the Xscape Milton Keynes site, Gerbeau added: “It’s very exciting that we’re picking up where we left off in Milton Keynes. We’re proving a mixed scheme in the leisure market can be a profitable business and this will drive our creative and innovative vision for the future.”