St Francis Group, a property development and investment group, and its joint venture partner ALMCOR have officially broken ground on a new 113,000 sq ft robot led HQ/warehouse for fast growing Chesterfield-based pharmacy chain Peak Pharmacy at its Horizon 29 industrial development site at Bolsover, North Derbyshire. Works on the £20m ultra-modern headquarters and facility commenced at the start of June and are accelerating rapidly. The new facility will use state of the art robotics and automated systems to support staff handling over 400,000 medicines and other prescribed items every month, equating to 20,000 a day, more than 40 every minute. The new Pharmacy Service Centre will handle prescriptions and dispatch medicines for the firm’s 150 community pharmacies across England. Prescriptions will be assembled for individual patients, then either delivered to local pharmacies for collection the next day, or direct to patients’ homes. The new hub is expected to take nine months to build and due to open in April next year. It will house up to 100 staff, with the potential to grow into a 24-hour operation in future. MCS Construction has been appointed as the main building contractor. St Francis Group also acknowledges the support of the Northeast Derbyshire District Council, Bolsover District Council, Derbyshire County Council and the D2N2 LEP in bringing this development forward. Speaking about the start on site Gareth Williams, development director at St Francis Group, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have formally marked the start of works onsite and to be building this fantastic new facility for fast-growing customer Peak Pharmacy with the team onsite already having made significant progress. “This new facility serves as the first unit to be built at Horizon 29, welcoming our first occupier. Since we commenced the extensive remediation of the site interest in the scheme has been extensive and the recent sale by the JV of 80 acres of land to BentallGreenOak for the speculative development of 1.2 million sq ft of warehouse and logistics space speaks to that. “We look forward to working with the team at Peak Pharmacy and delivering a first-class facility next year.” Joe Cattee, Managing Director of Peak Pharmacy, said: “These are ambitious plans for our company, staff and customers – in the face of a rapidly changing pharmacy landscape. “This new facility will be truly transformational for us. We’re investing now to future-proof our business, so that we can continue to provide great local customer service which means so much to us. “We are very pleased to be working with St Francis and ALMCOR and the full project team and look forward to seeing the development rise out of the ground as it happens.”

FHP have negotiated the acquisition of a 6.6 acre site next to the Nottingham City Hospital for Lidl on a subject to planning basis. The site was marketed jointly by Nottingham City Council and Stephen Hemming of Lambert Smith Hampton – Birmingham. David Hargreaves said: “This is a much larger site than the typical Lidl site of 2 acres. FHP provided advice to Lidl about the development options for the likely surplus land of some 4 acres and because the location will fill a gap in the Lidl network in Nottingham they decided to buy the whole site subject to planning.” FHP subsequently agreed terms on behalf of Lidl with MyPad to sell on the surplus land subject to planning which will be developed to provide new Affordable Family Housing. A mixed use joint Planning Application has now been submitted to Nottingham City Council by Lidl and MyPad. Hargreaves said: “This acquisition is a great example of the flexibility that Lidl bring to their site acquisition programme, whilst demonstrating FHP’s ability through our market knowledge and contacts to be able to underwrite risk for our clients.” It is hoped planning consent will be secured this summer with Lidl opening Spring 2023.

FHP acting on behalf of Wheatcroft Land have sold a 1.2 acre site on Burton Road, Derby to Burney Capital Partners, a specialist roadside developer. David Hargreaves of FHP, who handled the sale, said: “The whole site had been used for many years as a Pay & Display Car Park, but when Catherine Haward took over the running of the company from her father plans were put in place to develop out the prominent 3.15 acre site. “The first phase saw the sale of land to Aldi who built a 20,000 sq ft food store, whilst the remaining land was to be developed for unit shops for which Planning Consent was secured. “However, as the Wheatcroft Homes Business expanded, it was decided to sell the site to release funds to build more houses with a new 17 House development site subsequently acquired.” After a couple of false starts, terms were agreed with Darren Burney for a sale on an unconditional basis with the sale quickly completed early Summer. The Burney Group are proposing to develop 2 Drive Thru Restaurants on the site and a 3,500 sq ft Retail Unit, subject to planning. Catherine Haward of Wheatcroft Land said: “We are delighted that FHP were able to secure a quick and easy sale enabling us to further invest in our new homes developments and our forthcoming scheme of 17 stunning new homes and barn conversions in Kirby Muxloe in Leicestershire.” Nottingham and Derby based FHP Property Consultants acted for Wheatcroft Land in conjunction with Siobhan Smyth of Knights who acted on the legal side of the sale to the Burney Group, who represented themselves.

Intellectual property law firm, Potter Clarkson is moving to new offices in the heart of Nottingham city centre, with Geo Hallam & Sons securing a 10-year lease on 15,000 square feet of space at Chapel Quarter. The search for new space has been driven by a desire to provide a modern, sustainable and technologically advanced office environment, which more closely supports the new working practices established during the pandemic. It also follows the recent relocation of the firm’s London team. In an unusual transaction, the accommodation has been acquired in it’s existing un-refurbished condition which will be stripped back to a shell, fully refurbished and fitted out as Grade A offices by Claremont Group Interiors, with an element of the cost being funded by the landlord. The refurbishment works are due to commence shortly with Potter Clarkson set to relocate from their existing offices in January 2023. Steve Smith, managing partner of the Potter Clarkson group, said: “In Chapel Quarter we have found an office that supports our position as a leading European intellectual property law firm. “We are excited by the opportunity to design and develop a new working environment that supports greater flexibility and productivity – something that is tailor-made for our staff and clients. “Our new office will provide the highest quality environment to meet the new and future needs of our business, ensuring that Nottingham remains the beating heart of our firm.” The lease negotiations were overseen throughout by Roger Davis of Geo Hallam & Sons and supported by Freeths. Additional support was provided by Oval Real Estate, as advisers to the Landlord along with Mark Tomlinson at FHP who acted for the outgoing tenant Adrak, in the surrender negotiations.

Rushcliffe Borough Council’s Planning Committee will meet on Thursday July 28 to consider Nottingham Forest’s major plans for amendments to the City Ground and a residential development. The Council’s planning application report recommends approval of the plans which consist of a full planning application for the redevelopment of the Peter Taylor stand, including the demolition of existing buildings/structures, new public realm and car parking, and an outline planning application for up to 170 residential units. The residential scheme, meanwhile, would be housed in a 13 floor development with vehicle and cycle parking, commercial floor space, back of house and plant spaces, access and support facilities at the ground floor, additional vehicle parking and resident amenity space at first floor level followed by 11 levels of mixed sized residential units and roof top plant/terrace areas.

Councillors have agreed to proactively work with other Leicestershire districts, the City Council and County Council on the distribution of new homes and employment land from Leicester. Like all other councils, Blaby District Council is required to identify land for new homes and employment sites. The Council is set targets by the Government based on various factors such as population growth. Under national planning law, Blaby District is required to look at taking on a share of unmet housing from Leicester, which does not have enough land to meet its growth targets. The Council is legally obliged to co-operate with other districts to meet this need. To fulfil this requirement, the Leicester and Leicestershire Statement of Common Ground has been produced to distribute this unmet need of housing and employment land. At the Full Council meeting on 19 July, Councillors approved the intention to be the first council to sign the Statement of Common Ground. The signed document increases Blaby District’s annual housing need for 2020-2036 from 346 homes to 687 homes per year, an increase in 341 homes annually. No additional employment land has been allocated to the area. A comprehensive method to distribute the unmet need has been used to calculate the 346-home figure. The Housing and Economic Needs Assessment (HENA) looks at each council’s relationship with Leicester City, the balance of jobs and homes in each authority area and the ability for each area to deliver the additional allocation. Signing the Statement of Common Ground will also help to protect the integrity of Blaby District Council’s Local Plan. Not undertaking proactive work could see any Local Plan fail at examination which may make the Council more vulnerable to speculative and unwanted planning applications. Councillor Terry Richardson, leader of Blaby District Council, said: “I want to reiterate that this is a significant challenge for all councils in Leicester and Leicestershire. “This work needs to be undertaken proactively and in partnership with other councils. If we don’t do it, Central Government will do it for us, and this way gives us a lot more say than the alternative. “I understand how people may feel when they see Blaby District taking the biggest number of homes from the unmet need, but significant technical work has been done to reach the initial distribution figure. “It will also be important for the Government to recognise and support this joint working with the necessary funding of critical infrastructure, such as transport, schools and health provision to support the growth. “We are a Council that is prepared and strategic in its thinking and committed to shaping and making great places for our residents in the future. I am confident that any additional homes will be properly planned for so that we continue to do what is best for our local communities.”