This week, St James Securities ( Developer behind the Becketwell Regeneration) sold 3 properties on Green Lane to the Berry Group. It was reported that:

“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.”

NB: The press release should have read “tracts of land” .
The Condor is the new development on the site of the Debenhams building

A review of the history of the planning applications shows no “reconfiguration”. The properties in question are not within the boundary of Phase 1 (Condor). The buildings are part of a much larger plot of land that was sold by Derby City Council to SJS in October 2021 ( see Fig 1)

History

On 13 October 2017 Derby City Council bought the entire plot of land ( green and red shaded areas) from Debenhams for £2.1m.

Land Registry document for the Debenhams site. Green – sold to Grainger; Red sold to SJS (2) Ltd. Dotted areas – 3 properties sold by SJS (2) Ltd (Fig 1)

In the original planning application submitted in December 2019 the Master Plan for the whole Becketwell regeneration project described a number of phases. Phase 1 being The Condor building in the same location as Debenhams (top right). The area south of that was earmarked for a later phase (referred to as Site 2) – the details of which are still not defined. The car park in Site 2 is under separate ownership.

The “footprint” of Phase 1a/1b in 2019 is consistent with the current plan and layout 4 years later. This plot of land (green shaded area above – Fig 1) was sold in June 2021 to Grainger Residential Ltd ( owner of The Condor building) for £452,063. There is no evidence in the plans of any “reconfiguration” or change in the layout which would affect the inclusion of the 3 properties in the overall development as per the original plan.

Derby City Council owns the majority of the Becketwell land not subject to any detailed planning applications.

In October 2021 the south part of the site ( red shaded area – Fig 1) was sold to SJS (2) Ltd for £433,936.

In summary, the 2 parcels of land were sold by Derby City Council, for a total of £885,999, resulting in a capital loss of just over £1.2m!

Who bought the properties?

The 3 properties were bought by The Berry Group.

The Berry Group Ltd was incorporated on 22 February 2021 and is dormant. There are a number of other companies with shared ownership, incorporated since 2017, with combined net liabilities of around £150k. The companies are jointly owned by Sam Berry and Sarah Clowes.

Sarah Clowes is also a member of Clowes Securities (West Midlands) LLP alongside David Clowes, the owner of Derby County Football Club. David Clowes was also the previous owner of Laurie House and the Pennine Hotel which were both sold to Derby City Council, and then to SJS, and will be, in part, the location for the Becketwell Performance Venue (BPV) (Site 4). This will then be sold back to Derby City Council as part of the £45.8m BPV Forward Forward Agreement.

Comment

As with many aspects of the Becketwell Regeneration project – some things don’t make sense

Why did Derby City Council sell this land at a loss of £1.2m?

Why did Derby City Council sell the land to SJS, when, apparently, the properties were no longer part of the main Regeneration project?

Is there evidence of due diligence and open market offers for the properties or was it part of some greater deal with the Clowes family?

What profit opportunity was missed for the Council Tax payer?

Why does the press release suggest that the sale was because of a reconfiguration when there clearly wasn’t any change to the plans?

All questions which Derby City Council will avoid answering – one for the Audit and Accounts committee!?