Why Friar Gate Goods Yard was love at first sight for James

In the latest edition of Marketing Derby’s Innovate Magazine we meet James Dickens, of Wavensmere Homes, the company which is set to breathe new life into Derby’s historic Friar Gate Goods Yard.

The firm behind the hugely successful Nightingale Quarter residential scheme, on the site of the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, is poised to move onto the 11.5-acre site after receiving planning permission earlier this year to transform it into a stunning mixed-use development.

Wavensmere, along with Clowes Developments, will reanimate two landmark Grade II listed buildings on the site into over 110,000 sq ft of commercial space, with 276 new homes.

A painstaking restoration of the 19th Century Bonded Warehouse and Engine House is set to deliver a total of 111,275 sq ft of flexible offices, health and fitness space, a restaurant/café, together with a regional sales centre for Wavensmere.

Ahead of work beginning, Innovate joined James, who is Wavensmere’s managing director, for a tour of Friar Gate Goods Yard as it currently stands.

The site has stood derelict for many decades, but James can see past the weeds and the graffiti. To him, it was love at first sight.

He told Innovate: “I saw the beauty of what was left of the building as opposed to the blight that others may have seen – those features that have been able to withstand more than 50 years of dereliction.

“And to have that landmass so close to the central business district – it’s eleven and a half acres on the inner ring road – to be able to deliver city centre housing, I couldn’t walk away from it. I know the market is there.”

Some developers might be deterred at the prospect of tackling such a site, which involves conserving existing historic buildings.

But Wavensmere has an excellent track record for such schemes – one only has to look at the stunning restoration work carried out on the historic ‘pepper pots’ at its Nightingale Quarter development.

James told Innovate: “I like a challenge. I like to do something that someone else can’t.

“We’ve done former convents, we’ve done old people’s homes, technical colleges, and lots and lots of Grade II listed assets.

“We don’t shy away from that and to be able to get the critical mass that we’ve been able to secure over the years, we’ve had to buy problems. But give me your problems and I’ll fix them for you.”

To read the feature in full visit https://heyzine.com/flip-book/4814dbb8ca.html .