Review on St. Pauls Place, Heart of the City, City Lofts in Sheffield

Exciting news for those keeping their eyes on the Heart of the City redevelopment as it continues apace. City Lofts Developments and CTP ST James have unveiled ambitious plans for the residential element of the scheme.

The City Lofts proposal is for linked 21- and nine-storey towers for the plot between Arundel Gate (close to the top of Howard Street) and the newly created St Pauls Place. The lower-rise tower will overlook St Pauls Place, which will include not only offices but also cafes, bars and restaurants.

Sheffields City Lofts apartments will have interiors designed by ever-cool style guru Terrence Conran. The Conran aesthetic will bring kitchens, living areas and bedrooms an understated class, while bathrooms will be pared down to wet rooms with natural stone tiles. The Conran influence is thanks to the business alliance City Lofts has with Conran and Partners, which has a stake in the company.

Since its inception in 1997, City Lofts has rapidly established a reputation for quality. Its initial, blueprint development was in Clerkenwell, London. Together with the Conran connection, City Lofts reputation for quality means that its apartments are usually seen as among the best in town and sold at a premium.

Current City Lofts projects include Princes Dock in Liverpool and builds at various stages of development in Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Cardiff.

The proposed City Lofts, Heart of the City development in Sheffield is for 279 apartments: one- and two-bedroom units and also studios. There will be a car park in the basement. Plans for City Lofts also include a roof terrace, from which residents will be able to feel truly superior as they survey the Winter Gardens and Peace Gardens below.

You can take your pick of what Sheffield has to offer as far as bars, restaurants, entertainment venues and shops are concerned, as the City Lofts development is right at the heart of the city. Popping into nearby supermarkets or John Lewis, at Barkers Pool, couldnt be easier. For weekend browsing you could try the nearby Devonshire Quarter for its shops and bars. Then again, for a dose of culture, the Millennium Galleries are right next door and the citys theatres are also on your doorstep.

As previously mentioned, there will also be cafes, bars and restaurants included within the Heart of the City development, of which City Lofts is a part. The new buildings and public spaces, in combination with the Millennium Galleries, Winter Gardens and Peace Gardens, are envisaged as creating a lively area that will attract people from all over the city.

City Lofts has a pivotal location within Sheffield. Most of the centre can be reached in five minutes on foot from the City Lofts site: extremely handy for both work and play. All transport (train, bus and tram) will also be easily accessible from City Lofts.

As far as crime is concerned, the whole of central Sheffield has seen a rise in mobile phone theft, crimes typically occurring between 3pm and 9pm and the victims being young people. The vicinity of the City Lofts development should, however, have a lower incidence than quieter and more peripheral parts of the centre.

For any families contemplating City Lofts, Springfield Primary achieves average ratings for the city, while Silverdale, the catchment area secondary, performs well. Alternatively, western Sheffield does boast some good private schools.

Sheffields City Lofts apartments are likely to appeal to professionals and investors. Those wishing to make a good rental yield should bear in mind that it is easier to let out one-bedroom apartments and studios.

If there are no delays at the planning stage, building work on the City Lofts development should commence early in 2006 and be completed in 2008.

Prices will be suitably lofty for this prime-site development. On the grapevine we hear that 2-bed penthouse apartments at City Lofts may go on the market for up to £275,000, though at the lower end of the scale studios may be available from £80,000-£85,000. All of these figures are provisional and may change.

Whats happening here with the City Lofts development, and with the wider Heart of the City project, contributes significantly to Sheffields reinvention and city living boom. To have new residential towers right at the heart of the city will be revolutionary.

Well bring you further details on the City Lofts development as and when the council passes its verdict on the plans  in the coming weeks and months. The agents are planning to drop a sales pod into the Peace Gardens later in the year, so look out for that too.

Watch this space!