Client and regeneration specialist, Urban Rhythm was last night (Monday 21^st March) granted planning permission for the £20 million redevelopment of the former Wheatsheaf Works Boot and Shoe Factory, on Knighton Fields Road East, Leicester.

When it was built in 1891, Wheatsheaf Works was one of the largest footwear factories in the world. Owned by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, it supplied a wealth of employment opportunities in the south east of Leicester. 

The landmark site, with its two Grade II listed factory buildings and clock tower, will now be transformed into 172 high quality homes to meet the housing needs of the local community.

Plans for the development, which comprises a mixture of brand new townhouses and converted homes in the original buildings, have been devised by Leicester architects JSP Architecture.  The project will be developed by Urban Rhythm - the specialist regeneration arm of luxury local housebuilder The Hazelton Group.

Richard Hazelton, Commercial Director at The Hazelton Group said, “We are delighted to have been granted planning permission for this stunning new development.

“We’re sure our refurbishment of the Grade II listed buildings, which have been left derelict for the past 10 years, and development of the surrounding site will act as a catalyst to draw homeowners to the area and help to regenerate the local community. 

“The scheme will breathe new life back into a building steeped in history so that it may be appreciated as an integral part of the community once again.”

Justin Fox, Design Architect at JSP Architecture said, “We are pleased to be working with Urban Rhythm on such a landmark site in the city of Leicester and deliver a scheme of this quality and magnitude in the current economic climate.

“We will continue to liaise closely with Leicester City Council to ensure that our desire to score very highly on the Building for Life criteria, which is a new integral part of the City Council’s core strategy, is achieved.”

The ornate, Neo-Jacobean main factory building will be converted into a series of townhouses using contemporary interventions into the existing fabric of the building.  The homes will be located around an extensive landscaped courtyard.  This layout will help ensure the development has a real sense of community.

The design of the new build houses will contrast the beautiful historic façade of the listed buildings and help to further create this new community drawing on the founding principles of the Co-operative philosophy of community living. Urban Rhythm will work to ensure that these homes reach either Eco Homes Level ‘Very Good’ or Code Sustainable Homes Level 3.

For more information about the new homes at Wheatsheaf Works, call Urban Rhythm on 01536 714920 or visit www.hazeltonhomes.com/urban/

A CGI of the Wheatsheaf Works development

Following the successes of Mayfair-Prestige’s luxury car hire website, Unsworth Sugden’s digital division US Digital has been appointed to design and build the website for the company’s chauffeur division. The website’s design will encompass the divisions luxurious service whilst keeping a clean cut, modern feel to enhance user experience. Keep an eye out for news of its launch coming soon! 

This month has also seen US Digital build and launch Zone 3’s ecommerce website. Zone 3 provide the latest in triathlon wetsuits and clothing using their experiences of competing in the sport on a national and international level. Why not have a look for yourself http://www.racezone3.com/.

Two months on from our first piece of great coverage in the Leicester Mercury about the first PassivHaus office in the Midlands - and only the third in the country - being built in Leicester, the Unsworth Sugden PR team has done it again with a super follow-up piece in the paper’s business supplement.

Whereas the first piece focused more on the basics of the £1.5m deal, the second looks more closely at the revolutionary innovations that make PassivHaus stand out from other building standards. As a few quick examples, did you know that the energy costs could be reduced by about 90%? That the foundations are insulated? And that the earth’s core temperature will help heat the building? No, nor did we until we worked closely with client Raynsway Properties and Interserve Project Services, before liaising with the Leicester Mercury.

As Tom Watkinson, MD at Raynsway, is quoted as saying, “This is a revolutionary concept which will lead the way for commercial buildings of the future and to have a real breakthrough office building such as this in Leicester is a really exciting opportunity for the city.”

To see a PDF of the article, click HERE.

Client Westleigh Developments has been recognised for its continued commitment to its employees after being awarded the prestigious Investors In People gold status. And in much the same way, the Unsworth Sugden PR team has been rewarded for its hard work with two pieces of coverage in the Leicester Mercury inside a few days.

Our press release and photography resulted in THIS initial piece in the Mercury business pages however just a few days later it received much larger coverage as part of an article in the paper’s weekly business supplement.

This second piece was a really strong story about Investors in People which leads with the Westleigh gold award and shows exactly what Westleigh is all about, a great company to work for. In fact their photo caption “going that extra mile” sums it up perfectly! You can read the article HERE.

Westleigh HR Manager Suki Deol (left) and Administrative Director Judy Beighton (right) with the Investors in People Gold Status plaque.

When I first learnt from client Raynsway Properties that the county’s driving awareness scheme had expanded into new premises at its Bridge Business Park in Thurmaston, all sorts of potentially disastrous newspaper headlines immediately started going through my head:

“INCREASE IN DANGEROUS DRIVERS IN COUNTY”

“DANGERS BEHIND THE WHEEL”

“NOBODY IN LEICESTER CAN DRIVE PROPERLY”.

Whilst some locals might argue the third headline has an air of truth about it, luckily a rise in dangerous or careless drivers wasn’t the reason behind the expansion. However our job now in the PR team was to ensure that a journalist reading our press release didn’t jump to the wrong conclusion and dive (or should that be drive?) off on a tangent.

The expansion was in fact due to the consolidation of driver education and improvement workshops into one location and the introduction of a wider variety of awareness courses. Add to that a £100,000 revamp of the new unit by landlords Raynsway, plus some good photography, and hey presto you have enough facts for a strong press release.

And what’s more the journalist agreed, resulting in this great piece in today’s Leicester Mercury.

A strong press release pointed the journalist on the road to a great article

Client Westleigh Developments Ltd has donated £1,000 to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust after it was selected by the winner of the property developer’s festive online game.

Rather than sending Christmas cards to its suppliers and customers, Westleigh once again chose the green option, in line with its GreenHouse environmental commitment, and made its season’s greetings via email. Recipients were then invited to log on to play “Christmas Demolition”, a simple game where participants win points and complete levels by demolishing targets.

The game, which attracted hundreds of entrants, saw top scorer Robert Lees at Ridge & Partners LLP select the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to receive the £1,000 prize.

Chris Beighton, Managing Director at Westleigh, comments, “An increasing number of companies now send electronic greetings cards as an alternative to regular Christmas cards, which often leads to mountains of waste material after the festive period. The decision to run the online competition again was an easy one following the success of our previous charity games and we feel the £1,000 donation to a worthy cause truly reflects the real meaning of Christmas.”

After the success of its TV commercial, client The Earl Shilton Building Society has now taken to the airwaves with a new radio campaign.

The 30 second ad, which will appear regularly on Oak FM throughout January, February and March this year focuses on mortgages at the Society and how customers can talk to their friendly staff about their individual mortgage requirements, rather than relying on a computer to make the decision based on strict criteria as often happens in the robotic world of finance.

To read more about the ad and to find details of how to listen to it, please click here:

Think of December and what springs to mind? Christmas? Presents? Turkey? Decorations? Holiday?

What about getting dressed up in a drysuit and surfing in the freezing cold waves of Cornwall?

Because that’s what photographer Toby Savage found himself doing this month in Newquay in the second part of our adventure with Britain’s top surfer ‘Stokesy’ for client Schlüter-Systems. And not content with wading into the Atlantic upto his waist with a waterproof camera, he decided to take a surfboard, made from Schlüter-Kerdi-Board, and have a go himself!

Photographer Toby Savage getting in on the action

More shots and blog entries about this Cornwall visit will appear soon, but for those who need a recap about what we’re doing with ‘Stokesy’ click here.

A brand new, state-of-the-art building, which pushes the boundaries of environmentally friendly design and will be the first of its kind in the Midlands, is being built at the Watermead Business Park in Syston, owned by client Raynsway Properties. 

The £1.5m project is seeing a 6,000 sq ft regional office constructed for Interserve Project Services, one of the world’s foremost support services and construction companies, using the design principles of PassivHaus, a well established German based building standard which reduces energy costs by approximately 90%, compared to traditional build properties both in the residential and commercial markets.

The project is believed to be the first of its kind in the Midlands, with only two other PassivHaus offices completed in the country at present. Build work is expected to take until July 2011 to complete.

The Unsworth Sugden PR team secured the following coverage in this week’s Leicester Mercury business supplement about the project.

A CGI of the new Interserve office at the Watermead Business Park in Syston

Client Schlüter-Systems, the Coalville-based leading UK provider of tile solutions, has recently invested £100,000 in a brand new e-learning academy, the very first free online training facility of its kind in the industry.

As well as targeting the tiling and construction trade press with the story, the PR team also achieved the following great piece in today’s Leicester Mercury business section.

The team is also busy preparing an entry for the Schlüter Online Academy into the ‘Best Innovation’ category at the Tile Association Awards 2011. Keep checking the blog for more information….

The Schlüter Online Academy will help train people up and down the country from the comfort of their PC