Capital & Centric, a Manchester based developer, are developing the Crusader Mill in Ancoats, Manchester City Centre, have banned speculative investors from buying up units on the new project.

Co-founder Tim Heatley told delegates at the recent Mills Development Conference: “We are well underway with the restoration and conversion into owner-occupier flat. We’ve banned investors, because investors generally don’t value mill buildings as we would, or an owner-occupier would.” [emaillocker id=”71749″]

Capital & Centric have focused on selling larger flats at Crusader Mills at a premium to allow for the regeneration costs to be viable.

In addition to Crusader Mills, they are also developing a former cutlers’ yard in Sheffield, the Eyewitness & Ceylon Works, a £21m project on Milton Street, with a first phase of 100 homes.

Placemaking has been consideration for Capital on their Sheffield scheme, where residents are given a real stake in restoring the neighbourhood, Heatley explained: “There’s a cafe bar restaurant on the ground floor, and we’re giving 1/100th of a share for each buyer”,

Sunny Bank Mills in Pudsey is one of the Mills that was used as an exemplar in the Historic England Study, owing to its high quality and commercially successful renovation.

It is currently used for a mixture of usages, including a gallery, creative businesses, office space and number of independent shops, restaurants and cafes.

The owner of Sunny Bank, John Gaunt, emphasized the importance of fast action on Mills and he issued a call to action: “These places won’t be here in 30 years, we’ve got 30 years to get the best of the rest.” 

Gaunt praised community involvement and how it made redeveloping Sunny Bank possible: “Remember the value of the community around you, they are absolutely essential to the success of the development.”

The importance of viability was raised by Amir Hussain, Chief Executive of Yeme Architects: “A lot of mills can be divided into two categories, ones that would lead to a commercially viable development and the ones that are in areas that aren’t likely to do that.”

Hussain argued that many mills that are assumed to be unviable had the potentially for “visionary” development: “There are things people assume you can never do to a listed building, but because of the way we do it, we get permission.”

Eleanor Underhill, Assistant Director at the National Trust, noted the importance of ensuring redevelopment of listed properties does not undermine the historicity: “Neither the National Trust nor the planner would allow us to lose any of the significance of any part of our buildings.”

Underhill also noted that there was a degree of flexibility: “In practice, there is a constant balancing, planners are always responsive to the fact that we have to be financially sustainable.”

The importance of public sector cooperation also was emphasised by Trevor Mitchell of Historic England, who worked on the Engines of Prosperity report: “I think if there’s one thing that the campaign and the study has shown me, is that I’ve not met a local authority or public sector partner that didn’t agree that they liked this stuff.”

Historic England has a small mill fund, but Mitchell called on the public sector to create a larger fund to close “viability gaps” on mill regeneration projects.

Mitchell highlighted the importance of mills beyond just the commercial value: “Some disused mills will be in marginal areas, but the social benefits will make it worth them being done.”

Viability goes to the core of what makes mill regeneration a potential boon to developers, but if as a society mills have greater importance than just their untapped commercial benefits, it is important for the public sector, the community and indeed developers to push for the regeneration of challenging cases as well. [/emaillocker]