Why Becketwell embodies Derby’s ‘live, work, visit’ vision

A site that embodies Derby’s mission to have more people living, working in and visiting the city centre is Becketwell.

And at this year’s Derby Property Summit, Paul Morris, director at St James Securities – the company delivering the £200 million scheme – gave an insight into its exciting next chapter.

Paul began by taking delegates back to the beginning when Becketwell was six acres of “stalled city centre potential”.

In 2017, Derby City Council had an opportunity to buy the former Debenhams building in Victoria Street, which is when St James Securities became involved.

He said: “The shared vision was always live, work and play. It was always intended that we needed to create a sense of place, which meant a new public square and getting people living here.”

As a result, the first phase of Becketwell was the Condor – Derby’s first build-to-rent apartments scheme, operated by Grainger.

Offering 259 homes, it brought a new residential community to the heart of the city – while the accompanying Springwell Square brought some much welcome public realm to the area.

The second phase – Vaillant Live, the very building in which the Derby Property Summit was held – met the ‘visit’ brief.

A number of obsolete buildings made way for the £45.8 million, 3,500-capacity building.

Paul said: “Vaillant Live has been an incredible success for the city. The amount of footfall, spend and GVA that this building provides. And it will only get better and better.”

Paul then turned to Becketwell’s next phase, which aims to address the ‘work’ element – a new 106,544 sq ft office building known as 3 Springwell Square, which will be built on the former Duckworth Square.

It comprises an eight-storey, low carbon Grade A building designed to deliver premium, flexible workspace for modern businesses.

The plans also include an extension to Springwell Square and a new pocket park in Macklin Street.

According to Paul, once complete and fully operational, the building could support over 1,000 staff, providing a significant boost to local shops, cafés, restaurants, bars and other businesses.

Speaking about the quality of the building, he said: “This is not some dumbed down or budget version for this city – far from it.

“This will be a true, Grade A, state-of-the-art building. That is important, because nothing else like it in the East Midlands is coming through at the moment. This building is going to lead the way. It will set the bar for this city moving forward.

“On the back of this, we aim to restart the market for city centre offices.”

3 Springwell Square is one of two shortlisted locations for the new HQ of Great British Railways.

An announcement is expected soon – but according to Paul, 3 Springwell Square will get built, irrespective of the decision.

He said: “We have a clear delivery plan. Earlier this month, the funding strategy was approved by Derby City Council. So, this building is going to happen – there is no doubt about it anymore.

“We are so confident that we will be submitting a reserved matters planning application this Thursday.

“In November, we start on site doing enabling works, funded jointly between Derby City Council and the East Midlands Combined County Authority.

“I can’t stress enough the importance of the partnership approach we’ve got here. We couldn’t be delivering anything without working closely with our partners at the city council and EMCCA.

“It requires a lot of dedication, focus and trust to get these things off the ground.

“Then in summer 2027 we will start the build to deliver it in spring 2029.”

But according to Paul, the ambitions for Becketwell do not end there.

On ‘Site 2’ of Becketwell, there are proposals for 2 Springwell Square.

He said that this building is open to a variety of potential uses – including a four-star hotel, residential, student accommodation or more Grade A office space.

Meanwhile, phase five could take the form of a new 400-space multi-storey car park on the site of the former Pennine Hotel, adjacent to Vaillant Live.

Paul concluded: “We are incredibly thankful for the hard work, dedication and relationships we’ve built with our partners. We couldn’t do it without them.

“Becketwell is a long-term regeneration. I’m going into my 10th year with the project – and it will be many years until we’ve finished it. But I know I have partners I can work with and we will continue to deliver.”