Plans to regenerate 30 acres of land in Derby city centre have been announced. Company Compendium Living are carrying out the £100 million facelift to the area on behalf of Derby City Council.

The plans, which include up to 800 new homes, a school and open spaces, will be joined by a contemporary boulevard featuring space for office, retail, leisure and residential uses too.

The scheme which will see the boulevard created first, will provide a gateway between Westfield Derby and Derby Railway Station.

Castleward is just one of many city centre developments that are happening in Derby. View all the latest schemes on our new interactive Derby Development Map – Coming Soon.

To find out more information about the development, Click Here>

Work is under way at the site of the first speculative city centre scheme in the Midlands since the economic downturn.

Friar Gate Square, situated on the corner of Agard and Ford Street in the city’s Georgian business quarter, consists of two phases.

The first phase, currently under construction, will be 6 floors high and consisting of over 32,000 sq. ft of space. 700 jobs are expected to be created.

The office development made use of Derby City Council’s Regeneration Fund which assisted in funding construction costs. Phase one is expected to be completed in early 2013.

Friar Gate Square and other office developments have been included on the new Derby Development Map. This will be available to view soon.

To find out more about Friar Gate Square, Click Here>

The government has provided Growing Places Fund (GPF) to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to generate economic activity by addressing infrastructure and site constraints.  It is envisaged to be a ‘revolving fund’ (ie largely paid back) and a leverage to further private investment.

£17.8m is available with £5m of the fund already committed towards another regional bid. The funding is for Capital works only. The LEP Board has agreed that the GPF should:

• Be open to applications from anyone in the LEP area;
• Should be limited to between £0.5m and £2.5m per bid;
• Should focus on jobs;
• Should, preferably, seek to be repayable;
• The allocation of funds will be made by the LEP Board.

The LEP has invited fund applications with a closing date of noon Friday 27^th April.  It is envisaged that initial, in principle, awards will be made at the LEP Board 20^th June. Applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

• Impact (job creation, GVA/ GDP growth);
• Return on investment
• Leverage
• Deliverability Risk

Guidance notes and an application form are available on the Council website: www.derby.gov.uk/environment-and-planning/regeneration/growing-places-fund

Applicants are encouraged to contact their local authority for a discussion – for Derby the contact is: Greg Jennings (Head of Regeneration Projects) regeneration.projects@derby.gov.uk.

The Derby Velodrome has been given the go-ahead to start construction after councillors passed the development.

The Velodrome, which will be a multi-sports arena and 5,000 seater concert venue, will also include an indoor and outdoor cycling track.

Situated on Pride Park, the Velodrome will eventually link up to the adjacent development called Pride Plaza, a retail orientated space due for construction soon too.

The Derby Velodrome is part of Derby City Council’s £50m Leisure strategy for the city, which includes plans for an olympic sized swimming pool on the Riverlights in Derby too.

Construction of the Velodrome is set to start this summer, with plans to finish the venue for Spring 2014.

To learn more about Derby’s latest leisure developments, join us at the Derby Property Show on Wednesday 16th May. Click here for more details>

Derby has now got a “strong narrative” to attract investors after it had its best MIPIM ever, according to John Forkin, Managing Director of Marketing Derby.

Steve Hall, Peter Richardson, Phillip Hickson, Adam Wilkinson, Bob Betts, John Forkin, Richard Williams

A number of investors will be visiting Derby in the coming months following meetings at the property exhibition in Cannes this week. “By going to MIPIM and talking to the world’s property professionals we are trying to maintain the investment momentum in Derby. One of our key objectives at the show is to get serious investors to visit Derby to see what the city has to offer”

“It’s been really, really positive; probably our best MIPIM ever.”

“From a Derby specific point of view, we feel we have really got strong narrative now to tell to investors and we’ve had an awful lot of interest from the level of investor that probably hasn’t engaged with us in the past, too much, so it’s very positive.”

“What we really try and do here is we wave a flag, we get on people’s radar. Then we aim to get them to come and visit us in Derby, and that is what we have been doing. There will be a number of visitors coming to the city in the next two to three months following conversations this week, which I think will do the city no harm.”

Published on Insider East Midlands Website>

• Read: Derby Showcases £300m Investment at MIPIM>
• Read: New Inward Investment to Double Workforce>
• Read: Council Announces Double Development Plans>

Derby City Council Chief Executive, Adam Wilkinson has announced the Council is seeking a partner to carry out a major revamp of the Roman House office block in the centre of Derby, which is currently occupied by Council staff.

Speaking at the Derby City Embassy in Cannes, Mr Wilkinson also revealed plans for the Council to acquire the former magistrates’ court in Full Street from developer Wilson Bowden and transform it into a business start-up centre.

The Council Chief Executive also announced plans to start work this year on the Olympic-sized swimming pool in the city centre and the multi-sports arena on Pride Park.

The council would then work with Wilson Bowden to demolish the derelict adjacent police headquarters and develop that site for homes and a hotel. He hoped work could start on the court building by the autumn. Mr Wilkinson said movement on this key site was seen as “symbolic to the city’s future”.

Derby City Council Chief Executive, Adam Wilkinson, described how the regeneration fund was on course to create or safeguard 1,865 jobs and leverage £92.6m of private sector investment, speaking at the Derby City Embassy in Cannes yesterday.

As part of Derby’s presence at MIPIM – the world’s largest commercial property show, a Derby delegation led by the City Council held an event in Cannes which was attended by over 150 investors, property specialists, agents and the national media.

As well as pointing out the success the regeneration fund had in bringing HEROtsc to Derby – one of the city’s largest inward investments, Mr Wilkinson also described how the fund had aided the first speculative office developments in the Midlands since the economic downturn, Friar Gate Square.

Roger Shine, whose company, Lowbridge, has just begun work on the £20 million office development, said, “It’s important that Derby is here. It’s a city that’s perhaps still undersold and more people need to know about it.”

Mr Wilkinson also spelled out how the council was committed to investing £240 million over the next three years on housing, infrastructure and leisure schemes, including a multi-use sports and leisure arena and an Olympic size swimming pool. Both are to begin construction later this year.

HEROtsc, a call centre company that is creating 800 jobs in Derby has revealed it is in talks with potential clients that could lead to a doubling of employment at the site within 12 months to 1,600.

Chief Executive Officer at HEROtsc, David Turner, revealed yesterday that the company was so delighted with the quality of those workers – and with Derby as a base – that it was already showcasing the operation to three further potential clients.

“Some guests flew in from China a few weeks ago. Some others from the US will join us next week. I’m hoping by this time next year, that we will have at least doubled the employment that we bring to Derby”.

Mr Turner was addressing an audience of around 150 people who attended the Derby City Embassy event, staged in Cannes to try to attract more investment into the city. The event was part of MIPIM – the world’s largest commercial property show.

He told guests that he had been “blown away” by the quality of people that the company was recruiting as well as the business and civic community. He also described how he was persuaded to come to Derby by the city’s location, infrastructure and its record of partnership working.

“For those people looking to invest in a city moving forward, you will be pleasantly surprised by what Derby has to offer today and also what it can offer in the future.”

Investors from across the globe have today heard about a forecast £300 million of capital investment in Derby over the next 12 months.

A delegation of business leaders and council officials will be selling Derby at the Marché International des Professionals de l’Immobilier, in Cannes, France.

As part of the presentation, Derby City Council Chief Executive Adam Wilkinson will launch the quest to find a joint venture partner to help fund a multi-million-pound refurbishment of Roman House, in Friar Gate. Mr Wilkinson announced that the council intends to take over and refurbish the former Magistrates’ Court, in Full Street, to create additional office space.

There was also an update on the Council’s £10 million regeneration fund that helped get the Friar Gate Square office building out of the ground and news of additional investment in affordable office space in the city centre to encourage start-up businesses. Mr Wilkinson added that that over 1,800 jobs had been created by the Regeneration Fund already.

Managing Director Marketing Derby John Forkin, who is also at MIPIM said, “With Friar Gate Square, the HEROtsc deal, Darley Abbey Mills, the Magistrates’ Court and other schemes in the pipeline, the regeneration fund will have helped create or refurbish 362,000 sq ft of commercial space.

“By going to MIPIM and talking to the world’s property professionals we are trying to maintain the investment momentum in Derby. One of our key objectives at the show is to get serious investors to visit Derby to see what the city has to offer”.

David Turner, Chief Executive Officer at HEROtsc, was the keynote speaker at today’s event to talk about why his firm decided to bring 800 jobs to the city. Mr Turner said, “From the outset we were very impressed with the professionalism and, enthusiasm of both Marketing Derby and Derby City Council.”

“They wanted these jobs for Derby and their can-do, will-do attitude was both refreshing and invigorating during the often complicated process of securing our premises in the Pride Park area of the city.”

 Published in Business Weekly, Derby Telegraph Wed 7th March 2012.