Queensberry “proud” to help redevelop Sheffield city centre

Sheffield city centre is amidst its biggest change in over 30 years as one of the country’s biggest public sector projects Heart of the City is well underway. The development is being carried out by Sheffield City Council and being delivered by Queensberry acting as development partners.

Andrew Davison, Project Director at Queensberry spoke at the “At the Heart of it All” event about the scheme, and the future of Sheffield’s city centre. The event was co-hosted by Sheffield Property Association and the British Council for Offices inside the Isaacs Building on Pinstone Street which is set to be the next piece of the Heart of the City puzzle to open later this month.

Speaking at the event, Andrew Davison said: “We wanted to drive business within the city, bringing existing companies back, attracting new business large and small to create footfall that’s required to enable Retail, F&B and leisure and thrive. In addition, we wanted to create a sense of community by building quality residential that also feed into the mix to also support those businesses.”

One of the main issues the city centre faces at present is the lack of activity between people finishing work and coming into the centre for the evening.

Regarding this Andrew said: “It’s all very easy to have something like a bar at nine to 11 o’clock at night, but to activate between four and eight where office users enable businesses to have longevity and increase staff retention with social time with their friends either shopping or grabbing a bite to eat. So, this regeneration program is all about trying to incorporate those uses, those thoughts, those ideas.”

Queensberry’s relationship with the council began in 2017 and has seen several events that could have been detrimental to the timeline such as COVID-19, Brexit, and significantly increased energy, material, and labour costs.

Andrew said: “We have strong teams consisting of Leonard Design Architects, HLM Architects, Fielden Clegg Bradley Studios, Arup, and Turner & Townsend. Our tenants like Henry Boot are very important to us and believed in what we said we would deliver, and they’ve now taken the space within the Isaacs Building.

“We’re very confident in what we’ve created with the spaces being flexible, innovative and of quality design, using the existing streetscape of the city, so the streetscape remains and looks like what we remember, with 18th century or even older buildings retained in the main whilst incorporating interesting new structures to compliment and activate the streetscape.”

In 2021 Queensberry brought in shared workspace provider Cubo, which was 90 per cent occupied within six months of opening, demonstrating the healthy demand for people wanting to come back to the office following Covid-19.

Opening at the end of the year will be Cambridge Street Collective, a 25,000 sq. ft. food hall which will house 16 kitchens, seating for 1000 people including outdoor terraces and will be run by the Sheffield-based team Blend Family.

From a residential perspective, the 360-unit Kangaroo Works will bring a significant number of people living to the city centre with the occupiers of Burgess House having already moved in and enjoying city living, creating a community that can only be achieved by owner-occupiers due to the inability to buy to let on a commercial basis.

Andrew said: “We are so proud that we are about to deliver what we aspired for 6 years ago, and that locals and visitors alike, can enjoy this fabulous new Heart to its City.”

By Mark Adair – Correspondent, Bdaily

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