Tony Reeves, Bradford Council’s chief executive, revealed that Westfield has now set a start date for the £275m retail development.
Work first started in 2004 but stopped in 2008 leaving a 12-acre empty site in the city centre, now dubbed the ‘Bradford hole’.
Westfield won revised planning permission for a smaller £275m scheme in October but little progress has been made on site since.
The total size of the retail development will now be 520,000 sq ft, with the number of shops cut from 100 to 75.
Westfield’s revised plan includes parking for over 1,300 cars, new public spaces and improved links to neighbouring parts of the city centre.
Last year protesters camped on the building site urging Westfield to restart construction work there.
According to Reeves, Westfield said construction work at the Bradford site would take about two years to complete once it had restarted.
“We have real confidence that Westfield will achieve that aim and so they will be on site this year and building,” he said.
