Contracts have today (March 10) been exchanged as part of a major land deal to help regenerate Derby city centre – aided by funding from the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership.
Derby City Council today announced that it had exchanged contracts to buy the former Debenhams building in Victoria Street (pictured), and six related properties on Green Lane and Macklin Street. At the same time it has also exchanged contracts for the sale of Derby’s Eagle Market to intu, which runs the intu Derby shopping centre, as a separate transaction.
The purchase of the 110,000 square feet, former Debenhams building is expected to be finalised by the end of March. The other properties included in this transaction are numbers 22, 24, 36, 46 and 48 Green Lane and 12 Macklin Street.
Derby City Council says this real estate is needed to develop the once thriving Becketwell area of the city centre, which has seen a number of regeneration attempts.
The local authority’s public/private sector approach began with the purchase of Duckworth Square in September 2014. Assembling the necessary land will be completed with purchase of the former Debenhams building and related properties, after which it will be marketed to a developer partner.
The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership – the private sector-led partnership which promotes economic and jobs growth across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire – has earmarked £4million through its Local Growth Fund for purchase and preparation of the regeneration site.
Deputy Leader of the Council Councillor Martin Rawson, who has responsibility for regeneration, said today: “This area has been crying out for modernisation and development. There have been years of market failure to revive this part of the city due to fragmentation of property ownership and other factors, the Council is now taking the lead to rectify these problems in order to stimulate investor confidence.”
For further information on how D2N2 is using its Local Growth Fund allocation to build the area’s infrastructure, to help create economic growth, see the LEP’s website at www.d2n2lep.org/Growth/Local-Growth-Fund
Media wanting further information on the work of the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership can contact D2N2 Communications Manager Sean Kirby on 0115 957 8749 or email: sean.kirby@d2n2lep.org
