WORK is set to start on a £60m flat and business complex in Southampton after the land was formally handed over by civic chiefs.

The city council’s cabinet have voted to sign off land at the former Fruit and Vegetable Market site so it can be turned into 279 flats and commercial space.

Plans to build the complex on the site were approved by the city council earlier this year and the handover of the land has removed the final stumbling block before work can take place.

The first work is now set to begin on site in August, and the entire complex could be completed within three years.

The Hampshire and Regional Property Group’s (HRPG) plans for the site at the corner of Queensway and Bernard Street will see 279 one and two-bed apartments created.

The new flats will be contained in blocks up to seven storeys high, and the ground floor will contain commercial space and possibly a new convenience store, as well as a new public space near to Back of the Walls.

No business has yet been identified to move into any of the units on the site.

Thirty-five per cent of the apartments will be affordable homes.

There will also be 156 car parking spaces at the site, with a new public space created near to Back of the Walls.

About 30 jobs could be created in the new shops on the ground floor of the site, while dozens more positions would be created during construction work.

Council leaders hope the new development will become the cornerstone of the new Fruit and Vegetable Market Quarter, one of the council’s “VIP” sites for development across Southampton.

The Fruit and Vegetable Market Quarter will also contain 44 apartments in a £5m development on the nearby former New York, New York and McClusky’s site.

Work is currently continuing on that development, which will contain a number of affordable properties.