The University of Nottingham is seeking expertise from the local community to help shape the future of its newest campus, ahead of plans to open up the doors to the public for the first time this month. The university is establishing a volunteer advisory group for its Castle Meadow Campus, its new city centre campus on the site of the former HMRC headquarters, at the foot of the historic Nottingham castle. Jason Phoenix, Castle Meadow Programme Director for the University of Nottingham, said: “This is a hugely exciting development for the university and will enable us to realise some of our ambitions to expand research, teaching and collaboration activity, offer increased opportunities for civic engagement, and develop the university experience for many of our postgraduate students. “We want the local community to feel a part of what’s happening at Castle Meadow at every stage of its development and are seeking ‘critical friends’ to provide advice and support and bring best practice and knowledge to the project helping us to review plans as they develop.” Encompassing seven buildings – recently awarded grade II listed status for their iconic appearance – and 32,500 square metres of space, Castle Meadow Campus will feature state-of-the-art facilities and will be a hub for collaboration for the whole community – from local schools and businesses to academics and industry. Officially opening by 2025, the campus will provide an additional new base for Nottingham University Business School (NUBS), which will capitalise on the city centre location to develop new opportunities for teaching, research and partnership activity, enabling it to grow its postgraduate offer and increase collaboration with strategic partners. It will also be the home of the university’s Digital Nottingham project, which will harness digital and data knowledge and innovation to support a thriving regional digital sector and help solve challenges across the city and region. The university envisages opening up the campus as a venue for events, installations, demos and digital showcasing – including immersive technology, AI and Robotics and digital 3D mapping tools. In addition, it hopes to be able to offer digital skills education for local professionals and young people as well as regional networking opportunities for small and medium sized businesses. A phased refurbishment plan is underway and in purchasing Castle Meadow Campus, the university also became landlords for law firm Browne Jacobson which is currently based at the site. It is soon to be joined by professional services firm KPMG, which has announced it will relocate its East Midlands office to the campus later this year.

Plans have been approved for the transformation of a once bustling car showroom, garage, and petrol station on Portland Road, Hucknall into a state-of-the-art Loft Self-Storage facility.

The project will introduce a new storage solution business to the area, featuring portable storage containers and storage units integrated into the open areas of the site.

By introducing this new storage facility into the area, Loft Self Storage will create new job opportunities, stimulating local employment and contributing to the local community.

Speaking about the upcoming project, Loft’s Managing Director, Nick Williams, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been granted permission to change the use on Portland Road. We plan on creating a much-needed self-storage area for all people who need that extra little secure storage space.

“Job opportunities will be created in the local area along with bringing the old site back to life whilst still in keeping with the local area and surroundings. We can’t wait to get going and welcome the people of Hucknall and surrounding areas to this new and exciting project.”

Newark-based Influence Landscape Planning and Design is the landscape architect on a project to create a new boathouse at Kings Mill Reservoir near Sutton in Ashfield, work on which has begun this week. Kathryn Dunk, principal landscape architect at Influence, said: “Kings Mill Reservoir is a special place where nature and visitors flock. It’s a place for being close to nature, enjoying the surroundings and experiencing the myriad of water sports on offer. “I’m really pleased that progress is being made to create the new leisure building which will sit alongside the water sports facilities and provide a place to dine and relax. Naturally landscape plays a key part here and we have created designs that responds to the specific character of the reserve, with a naturalistic planting palette of grasses and wildflowers and native Downy Birch trees reaching across the site to the water’s edge.” Lincoln-based Lindum Construction is delivering the project which involves demolishing an old boat house to make way for a new two-storey structure providing modern, accessible changing and storage facilities for water sports on the ground floor, with a restaurant and function space on the first floor. The project is one of 17 in the district being funded by £62.6m of Towns Funding and will complement the expansion of the neighbouring The Mill Adventure Base. Lindum Construction Manager Mark Robertson said the entire project would take around a year to complete. “We are looking forward to getting started on this project, which will result in a superb leisure attraction for local people. The restaurant will be in a fantastic location with views of the water,” he said. “We have a strong pipeline of local subcontractors who will be working on this scheme with us so the council’s investment will continue to circulate within the economy. “It is good to be working with Ashfield District Council again. Lindum has a delivered several housing schemes for the authority over the past three years and we’ve developed a strong relationship, based on openness, trust and successful delivery of projects.” Cllr Matthew Relf, Executive Lead for Growth, Regeneration and Local Planning added: “This is another positive step for our plans to make Mill Waters one of the top tourist destinations in the East Midlands. “We want to hear from clubs or individuals, who are keen to get involved in developing and running water sports activities at the reservoir. Please get in touch with the team if you are interested.”  

A deal has been completed to sell three substantial freehold premises on Green Lane in Derby city centre. St James Securities, the company behind the £200m regeneration of the Becketwell area of the city, has disposed of the properties to the Berry Group, a successful Derby-based property company. The properties form part of legacy ownership originally controlled by Debenhams when they traded from the former department store, with the site now home to The Condor, Grainger plc’s new 259 BTR apartment scheme, which is set to launch next month. As part of the on-going regeneration project at Becketwell, tracks of land behind The Condor needed to be reconfigured resulting in the disposal of numbers 22-24, 36 and 46-48 Green Lane. The three properties will be transformed into a mixed-use development, incorporating ground floor commercial units to the frontage which will provide a much-needed uplift to the existing street scene. In addition to this, there will be new residential use throughout the remaining parts of the properties, helping aid Derby City Council’s goal of providing additional, affordable city centre living. Derby’s £200m Becketwell regeneration scheme is the most significant urban regeneration scheme in the city for more than three decades. The Becketwell scheme will create a vibrant, exciting, new quarter of residential, commercial, leisure activity in the heart of Derby city centre. Phase one is the delivery of The Condor, the city’s first ever purpose-built, Build to Rent scheme, which will be owned and operated by Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed provider of private rental homes, along with the creation of a new multi-purpose public square. Phase two of the scheme includes a major £45.8m 3,500-capacity performance venue, which will be operated by ASM Global, the world’s leading venue management and services company, and producer of live experiences. Future planned phases of the scheme include the potential for a range of other complementary uses of the site including a hotel, further residential accommodation, a multi-storey car park and purpose-built student residential. Paul Morris, development director at St James Securities said: “We are pleased to have concluded the sale of these three very interesting buildings. “The Berry Group have the required experience and skill set to reactivate these long vacant properties to provide a mixture of commercial and residential space as part of the on-going re-energisation of Derby city centre.” Alex Cockayne, commercial director of the Berry Group, added: “We are delighted to have purchased these three properties from St James Securities and thank both Rigby & Co and St James Securities for their dealings and co-operation throughout the conveyancing period. “We are now thrilled to focus our attention on bringing these derelict buildings, which have been empty for over 15 years, back to life. These buildings will play a part within the Becketwell regeneration scheme and provide Derby city centre with some much-needed high end accommodation and fresh commercial space.” The transaction of the units was brokered by Russell Rigby of Derby-based commercial property consultants Rigby & Co, who said: “We are really pleased to have delivered a successful outcome for SJS and given the rise in confidence levels on streets bordering Becketwell, we believe we have an excellent match-up between an emerging location and The Berry Group, who have already demonstrated that they are skilled at getting to grips with mixed use assets such as these three buildings.”