Leaders say a new contract means they can ‘crack on’ with the Market Place transformation
The Assembly Rooms in Derby has stood empty for twelve years following a major fire(Image: Derbyshire Live)
The leader of Derby City Council has said a “momentous” decision has been made over the Market Place regeneration.
But a new timeframe shows the expected demolition of the Assembly Rooms still could be at least six months away or even longer.
Derby City Council leaders approved to formally appoint developer partners to “crack on” with major plans to transform the city centre with the £100m development.
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The plans are to massively regenerate the area once the demolition of the Assembly Rooms is complete.
In its place will be a new multimillion-pound mixed-use building, a new hotel and Grade A office space, as well as public open space.
Labour leaders agreed on the authority to enter into a formal contract with partners Vinci UK Developments and Ion Developments at a meeting on Wednesday (April 8).
A “robust” business case has also been approved by leaders – marking a “significant” step forward.
Plans to revamp the Market Place have been discussed for years with several twists and turns along the way since a serious blaze closed the Assembly Rooms in 2014.
The council says Vinci and Ion have “extensive experience in large-scale regeneration” in collaboration with local authorities.
After being announced as preferred partners in 2024, both companies have developed a masterplan, business case and a planning application to transform the Market Place area.
The planning application – now the next big step – is expected to be decided in the coming weeks.
Council leader Nadine Peatfield hailed the agreement as “momentous”, allowing the plans to take a “significant” step forward.
She said after the meeting: “It is momentous because we’ve been working with the partners for two years roughly on these plans from concept to where we are today.
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“While they have been our preferred partners, we haven’t entered into a contract and couldn’t until they presented a business case.
“We’ve also approved the high-level outline business case. Contracts like this don’t happen every day because it also includes a second site – the northern gateway, which is the Queen’s Leisure Centre area.
“This is significant. To get into contract is a huge part of releasing a planning condition to allow us to demolish [the Assembly Rooms], which could not be done without it.
“But from this moment on, the decisions are now in the hands of the planning committee.”
Cllr Peatfield would not give an estimate on when the Assembly Rooms will be demolished but was pushing for speediness.
The leader showed the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) a new timeframe document detailing when demolition work could start.
It says that if the planning application and relevant conditions are approved, work could then start to “prepare” the demolition – but this could take up to a maximum of 19 weeks.
Cllr Peatfield said she was pushing for this work to be completed sooner.
Following this, the actual demolition and site investigations would then commence, which could take around a year to complete.
The council leader added: “I know the people of Derby will want the answer to that (when demolition starts). But I’ve been in a position before where I thought I was able to give the answer and it hasn’t transpired.
“I don’t think we would be struggling to start demolition this year. You can see the timeline and how it could move depending on the other influences.”
The next Derby City Council planning committee meeting is scheduled for the middle of May.
During today’s meeting, city councillor Carmel Swan said the agreement felt like “the sunshine coming through”. Fellow cabinet councillor Hardyal Dhindsa said Derby residents would welcome the agreement.
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