Derby council purchases former nightclubs, hotel and casino

Derby City Council has purchased seven properties in the ‘downtrodden’ Becketwell area of the city.

The buildings were once home to the Pink Coconut nightclub, the former Pennine Hotel/St Peters Quarter Hotel, the former Redemption Nightclub, the former Syn Nightclub and the former Mint Casino.

Also included in the sale are the NCP St Peters Quarter multi-storey car park.

With a combined area of 65,337 square feet of land, this latest buys brings the total amount of land now owned by the council in the Becketwell area to 204,730 square feet.

The D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which has already invested £4m in the regeneration scheme and has provided another grant of £4.1m as further investment. Part of this was used for the purchase of the new properties.

Chris Poulter, leader of the council said: ‘I am pleased to announce the purchase of these properties following successful closed-door negotiations by a multidisciplinary team of officers. This is a huge milestone as it opens up huge opportunities for a bigger impact of the Becketwell Regeneration Scheme.

‘The purchase has taken us even further towards accomplishing two key objectives of our City Centre Masterplan. One is for a holistic regeneration scheme for this area and the second is to release publicly-owned assets for regeneration in partnership with private sector developers.

‘It is pleasing that the owner of these properties has been able to work with us and has agreed to the sale for the good of the city and the local economy.  We are now forging ahead with developing a masterplan to transform this derelict area into a vibrant quarter of leisure, living and business.  More will be revealed early in 2019.’

In 2014, the council began their strategy of purchasing properties for regeneration with the acquisition of Duckworth Square. This was followed in 2016 with the purchase of the former Debenhams building.

They say by purchasing unattractive or difficult buildings, they will help to move past the obstacles that have hindered previous attempts at regeneration in Becketwell