Nottingham Buildings

The South Reef Development, Canal Street / Canal Side

South Reef, Canal Street is a development by Southreef Properties Limited that will completely transform what was the dull and semi derelict, piece of land between the Nottingham Canal and Canal Street. The £40M development was due for completion in 2009 and will provide more apartments together with leisure facilities, shops, offices and car parks.  The architects for the development are Levitate of London and the principle contractors for the scheme were originally the long established local firm of Thomas Fish & Sons.  

I say 'were', because back in April 2008 it was announced that the firm, established almost 200 years ago in 1811 had fallen victim to the credit crunch and bad debts, and was forced to call in the administrators. The scales were apparently finally tipped when a Northampton housing association failed to settle a bill for almost  £1.5 Million.  Almost immediately following the announcement,  local entrepreneur & businessman Mr. Chek Whyte, head of the Chek Whyte Industries Group,  purchased the company for £500,000 and he continued with the project still trading under the old Thomas Fish name.  Mr. Whyte is well known in the city for his involvement in several well executed restoration projects.  He was also planning a 50 storey skyscraper on land in the East Side Development Area, not far from South Reef.  

Whilst the site stood silent when I visited at the end of April 2008, the change of ownership of the company caused only a very minor interruption to this project and progress then advanced at a very considerable pace until about July 2009 when it was announced that Mr. Check Whyte had himself become a victim of the credit crunch and stagnation of the property market, and that he was facing personal bankruptcy with debts of some £30 Million ! A staggering amount of personal debt.  However, an agreement was reached with creditors that allowed him to continue to trade and to re-pay the debts from the sale of assets over a period of time and the work on this site continued  but at a much slower pace.  

At present progress is very slow indeed and I'm unsure as to what the present situation is with regard to Mr. Whyte and the completion of the site.

 I'm no property expert, but given the number of vacant shop and apartment units already in the city, I think selling South Reef could be an uphill task.  The sale / letting of the new shop units in this development will also not be helped by the delay to the proposed new Broad Marsh shopping mall which would have brought the area more into the spotlight.  When the development is finished the apartments will afford a very pleasant environment in which to live and the complex as a whole has certainly transformed what was a very depressing stretch of the Nottingham Canal.  Unfortunately, and probably unavoidably, the Canal Street elevation does not have the same visual appeal and looks like a giant wall of concrete at the moment.  This is due firstly to its height and close proximity to the actual road and secondly to the fact that it faces due north and will nearly always be in shadow.  It would look better standing back from the road, but that would have led to a significant loss of floor space.

NEWS 26th JULY 2011 - The Nottingham Evening Post reports that Southreef Properties Limited has now also gone into administration and that the project is now being run by accountancy firm BDO.  There seems to be no end to the problems associated with this major development and as I have said previously, I think anyone will face an uphill task trying to sell / let the shop / showroom units until the Broad Marsh Centre is re-developed. The timing of this project has been its downfall - but who could have anticipated that at the planning stages - pre-credit crunch?

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The eight photographs immediately below were taken on 19th February 2012.  It's another eight months since my last visit to this site and progress is still painfully slow. More apartments are now occupied but  work to complete the tower block is still in progress and the footbridge is still closed to pedestrians.  Work is also still outstanding to complete the waterside terrace area and existing residents, some of whom have been there eighteen months now must be getting very frustrated over that particular point.  When will this project be finally finished ????

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The four photographs immediately below were taken on 26th June 2011.  It's over nine months since my last visit to this site and progress now appears to be painfully slow. Several apartments are now occupied but there still seems to be quite a lot of work to complete on the tower block.  The footbridge looks to be complete but is not yet open to pedestrians.  It will be nice to see this open and the waterside terrace area cleaned up and planted with a few shrubs - no doubt the residents would agree on that point.

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The eight photographs immediately below were taken on 17th October 2010. It's almost a year since my last visit to this site and I was surprised to see how little progress had been made. A sign says 40% of units have now been sold and some apartments are now occupied. However, it looks like it could be quite a long time before the overall project is completed - no doubt the result of cash-flow problems.

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The eight photographs immediately below were taken on 2nd November 2009. Back to the heavy shadows cast by the low autumn sun.
All the cranes have now gone and work is presently in progress fitting window frames etc. 

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The eight photographs immediately below were taken on 20th April 2009.
As will be seen, construction of  the basic steel & concrete shell is now almost complete and only one tower crane remains.

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The seven photographs immediately below were taken on 31st February 2009

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The twelve photographs immediately below were taken on 25th November 2008
It was a day of very bright, low autumn sun - hence the strong shadows.

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The five photographs immediately below were taken on 15th August 20086th 

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