Plans have been submitted to turn a former Victorian mill – currently home to businesses including a swingers’ club – into homes and offices.
Nottingham-based Swish Architecture has drawn up the plans for ALB Group to transform the Osmaston Works building, in Osmaston Road, Derby. The details have now been put before Derby City Council for approval.
The site is currently home to businesses including The Attic swingers’ club, which has been going for 15 years and which is moving to a new home in Carrington House, in Ascot Drive, Derby.
The developer wants to retain the late nineteenth century building and convert it into 64 apartments, complete with a ground floor gym area. Surrounding industrial units will be demolished to make way for two more apartment blocks, six small family homes, an office block as well as car parking and cycle stores.
Swish Architecture director Dino Labbate said: "We’re delighted to be working on this project, having done a lot of work with ALB Group up and down the country.
“It’s a good site which is currently, in parts, in a massive state of disrepair. It has good frontage and has great transportation links, though it also has a lot of unsightly industrial land.
“This development will truly reinvigorate the area and provide footfall to local businesses - and also give it a much-needed tidy-up.”
Mr Labbate said if they receive planning approval later this year construction work would start in 2024.
The mill apartments will be aimed at young professionals, while the two-bedroom terraced houses at the rear, complete with private gardens, will be aimed at families.
Arran Bailey, managing director of Nottingham-based ALB Group, said: “There are so many sites like this around the UK which represent the nation’s once booming manufacturing might but which have sadly been allowed to fall into disrepair.
“For largely commercial reasons, developers are reluctant to take on anything like this, where preservation is as important as construction. But we are determined to breathe new life into these down-trodden areas.
“These buildings deserve to be retained due to their character and history, and we are confident that residents and businesses in the area surrounding Osmaston Mill will benefit hugely from our proposal.”
ALB Group, which bought the mill site in 2021 for an undisclosed sum, has already transformed Draycott’s Victoria Mill into 73 luxury apartments and has started work to restore the historic Bridge Mills, in Long Eaton.
Swish Architecture has worked with ALB on projects including the refurbishment of Sailmakers shopping centre, in Ipswich, the renovation of a 48,000 sq ft building in Fargate, Sheffield, and the transformation of a number of buildings in Bridlesmith Gate, Nottingham.
