£45m vision for city’s new culture venue
PLAN FOR ARENA TO REPLACE ASSEMBLY ROOMS
PLANS have been unveiled for the £45 million performance venue in Derby’s Becketwell area.
The new venue would have a capacity of 3,500 – double that of the Assembly Rooms, which it is planned to replace.
And the developers say it will “turbocharge” the regeneration of Becketwell and “reinvigorate” the city centre.
for a new 3,500-capacity £45 million performance venue in Derby’s Becketwell area have been revealed by the city council.
The proposed performance venue, known as Becketwell Arena, would replace the Assembly Rooms in the Market Place, which will be demolished in the next 18 months.
It is the latest in a series of suggestions for replacing the Assembly Rooms, which has been shut since 2014 following a fire in the plant room of the adjacent car park.
The last one was to refurbish the existing Assembly Rooms at a cost of £24 million but this fell through earlier this year because of escalating costs.
The proposed Becketwell Arena plan has been devised by the council with St James Securities, who have been working to develop the former Duckworth Square site into an area for shops, offices and apartments.
The new entertainment and conference venue would be located on the site of the former Pink Coconut nightclub. It will be a fully flexible space, capable of staging shows, comedy acts, bands and conferences, with secondary space of up to 400 capacity, and is scheduled for completion in 2024.
It will offer a significantly larger and more flexible space than the city has had in the past – the Assembly Rooms held 1,700 people.
The venue is intended to appeal to a wider range of audiences in a purpose-built setting run by a nationally respected operator.
The project will be delivered by St James Securities at a fixed priced to the council, with the developer securing a national operator as tenant for at least 25 years, significantly reducing the financial risk to the council.
The operator is expected to pay at least £500,000 a year to the council, which already has £10 million set aside to build the venue and says it will undertake public sector borrowing for the remainder of the money.
It is anticipated that the venue will hold hundreds of cultural and commercial events each year, offering a fantastic and varied programme for local people and attract an additional quarter of a million visitors to Derby.
More than 200 new local jobs are expected to be created, giving the city centre economy a significant boost. The scheme is set to generate more than £10 million a year for the area and attract up to 250,000 customers.
Councillor Matthew Homes, city council deputy leader, said: “We are working together with experienced commercial sector partners to put the best venue option on the table. This is about creating a vibrant, thriving city centre, and rejuvenating areas that have seen a decline.
“A new venue like this will significantly aid our recovery efforts and boost business confidence by creating hundreds of jobs, putting millions into the local economy, and make a big contribution to Derby’s future prosperity.”
The council says that the new venue will collaborate with and complement the activities of Derby Arena to provide the best possible events programme for Derby. The two venues will work together to ensure we can maximise the numPLANS ber of events that can come to Derby.
Paul Morris, director of St James Securities, said: “We are tremendously excited to be working with Derby City Council on this ambitious scheme, which is set to bring an outstanding, modern performance venue to the city.
“We strongly believe that a new purpose-built city centre venue is the right way to deliver a new performance venue for Derby and are confident that the best location for that venue is as a key part of the Becketwell scheme.
“Once the successful operator has been selected, they will help to inform the design, capacity and layout of the building and the mix of popular and mainstream shows, performances and events.
“We have created a great scheme which will fill a significant gap in the city cultural landscape. Our flexible venue will cater for major music and comedy acts as well as a strong programme of theatre content. The conference and events centre will support the growth of the business community in the region.
“The performance venue is set to ‘turbocharge’ the entire Becketwell scheme, allowing us to bring forward a new multi-storey car park and hotel and will be key to the future reinvigoration and repositioning of Derby city centre.
“We have pulled together a very experienced team who have a long track record in delivering similar projects. The team will be led by IPW who have been involved in similar arena developments including Leeds, Hull, Swansea, Battersea, York, Glasgow, Bradford, Gateshead, Copenhagen, Singapore and Abu Dhabi.”
The development team at St James Securities has already had strong interest shown from six leading operators. A new large-scale venue is a key component of Derby’s masterplan for the city centre, which has been developed collaboratively between the public and private sectors.
It is envisaged that the venue will act as a catalyst for further investment into the city-centre and boost the vibrancy of the area. The leisure and retail experience will be greatly enhanced invigorating the day and night-time economies.
The new venue at Becketwell will be in addition to plans for a public square, hotel, offices and apartments already signed off by planners earlier this year.
Derby City Council will also kick start the process of totally redeveloping the former Assembly Rooms by clearing the site and pursuing new development opportunities.
Mr Holmes said: “We intend to demolish the Assembly Rooms and we are in talks about something to succeed it on that site. But until then we will use the space created as an extension of the Market Place and hold a series of events including pop-up markets and play area.” The council is working with partners on ideas to ensure the site can contribute to the vibrancy of the Market Place quarter to complement the current refurbishment for the historic Market Hall, the successful Quad offer and the ongoing refurbishment of the Guildhall. Mr Holmes added: “A vibrant city centre is a key priority for the council and its partners as we look ahead to the city’s recovery from Covid-19.
“An economic task force, made up of representatives from both public and private sectors has been formed to lead and drive forward Derby’s economic recovery from the effects of the coronavirus crisis, including a specific workstream on the city centre, which will look at the longer term impacts on the city centre.”
A vibrant city centre is a key priority for the council.
Councillor Matthew Holmes