Sheffield's future in the heart of the city

The Director of City Centre Development at Sheffield City Council, Nalin Seneviratne, will be speaking at our Future Cities Forum's January event, Healthy Cities, at the Apothecaries' Hall, London.
He will be discussing the 'plot by plot' regeneration approach being taken in Sheffield, the 'Heart of the City II' project. The master plan for tackling this vital part of Sheffield draws on the wider green strategy for the city, which will transform areas of tarmac into green space and ensure that cycling and walking is encouraged over car use.
Nalin describes how the current Heart of the City II plan has grown out of several previous incarnations, including a "misguided, retail-focused approach in the late 1990's which was expected to be a counterpoint to the Meadow Hall shopping centre'. Now the emphasis is firmly on a balanced mixed-use strategy, which is attracting businesses back into the city centre, as well as providing residential, hotel, restaurant and entertainment uses.
Sheffield City Council took control as primary developer in 2013, and then appointed Queensberry Real Estate as strategic development partner in June 2016 to master-plan and deliver the seventeen acre site. This will be coming on-stream in phases between 2019 and 2024.
The cutlery industrial heritage of Sheffield has not been forgotten, with the old Rutland Cutlery Company which works on Neepsend Lane being redeveloped into a food hall and restaurant destination by the Milestone Group, finding new uses for a factory building abandoned in 2009.