Old Courthouse gets a new look with modern apartments (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Old Courthouse gets a new look with modern apartments

9:18am Wednesday 16th March 2011 in Business By Jim Greenhalf

The courtroom where the late Judge James Pickles used to preside is now the Hawksworth Suite, a furnished single-bedroom apartment with enormous armchairs, double-glazing and a 35ft-high ceiling.

It’s part of a £1.5 million redevelopment by Bradford-based builder Darren Ingham’s Solo Construction company for Investec, the international specialist banking group that owns the former County Courthouse building, erected on Manor Row in 1859.

There are 12 single and two-bedroom apartments, plus two city houses in the scheme, which since 2003 has a long and tormented history, as Cheshire architect Derek Watmough can testify. He’s the managing director of 4mation Architecture.

He and Darren are also involved with the refurbishment of York House, the former gentlemen’s club on the corner of Manor Row and Piccadilly, built in 1866 from designs by architects Lockwood and Mawson.

This building, owned by London-based lettings company Formation plc, is a £1.6 million development of 24 apartments, scheduled for completion in June this year.

So this corner of Manor Row running into Manningham Lane is being upgraded by two developments totalling 38 dwellings to the value of about £3.6 million.

Bradford, as is well-known by now, has an abundance of single-bed apartments, what makes the ones in the Courthouse so different from the numerous other city-centre refurbishments?

Darren, who was brought up on the Buttershaw estate, said: “It’s a quiet location for the city centre. The building has a lot of period features that you won’t find anywhere else. The apartments are spacious with a high-quality finish, designed for young professionals.

“If Bradford is to make progress, the city centre needs to pull away from social housing and concentrate on the young professional market and the business sector to lift this part of the city up.

“We need to upgrade Bradford to a city again, rather than downgrade it to a town.”

Next door to the Courthouse is Malik House, refurbished business offices and a cafe. The area, which in the late 1980s used to be the vicinity of the city centre’s clubland, has been struggling for 20 years or more.

For ten years or more, Darren had made a good living buying, doing up and selling property. In 2009, he was asked by his friend of 20 years, Manchester-based John Marriott, head of credit at Investec, to form a construction company and see the project through.

Mr Ingham said: The bank had spent £800,000 on it up to that point. I looked at the building and told them they needed to spend another £700,000. The building was a dilapidated shell. The lead and slate had been taken off the roof. I thought the building was worth £200,000 at most. Another bank would have auctioned it.”

Having agreed to take on the job, what did he do then?

“I brought in my team of 28 craftsmen – they’re not just builders. I got the original teams of structural engineers and architects together.

“We started work on November 19, 2009, and finished on January 17 this year.

“At the present time the bank has not had a return on its money. The apartments are worth about £8,000 a month in rental income. The Courthouse has not previously been marketed. Now it’s in the hands of Bradford-based Inspire Property and Right Move – both lettings companies,” he added.

Both Derek Watmough and Darren Ingham say they have lost money on the development, although they are hoping to break even on York House. Darren personally financed the Courthouse development.

“Investec used to support the previous construction company. But since forming Solo Construction, I have been financing the project. I get a draw down from the bank at the end of the month according to what work has been completed.

“I don’t have an overdraft at a bank. The financing is based on my previous business enterprises,” he said.

Bradford Council is planning an official launch of the completed Courthouse later this month.