Capital & Centric eyes £60m expansion at Eyewitness Works

Capital & Centric is looking to double the size of its Eyewitness Works development in Sheffield by bringing forward a £60m residential scheme next to it. The social impact developer, which is backed by Homes England, is in talks with Sheffield City Council about acquiring the former Swifts Performance site on Fitzwilliam Street. The developer wants to deliver 200 homes on the site across two blocks of flats, between four and five storeys each, along with cafés and retail space on the ground floor. Capital & Centric acquired a long lease from the council in 2018 and secured £14m funding from Homes England and the South Yorkshire Pension Fund to deliver Eyewitness Works, which is valued at around £29m. It features the restoration of the Grade II listed buildings on Milton Street in the Devonshire Quarter, creating 97 build-to-rent flats along with a 900 sq ft café-bar.  The first phase of Eyewitness Works, launched at the end of last year, is now fully let. In May this year, the developer brought to the market the remaining 36 industrial-style flats within the Brunswick building, featuring fully furnished one-, two- and three-bedroom homes. Tim Heatley, co-founder of Capital & Centric, said: “In order to do things that are difficult and ambitious and at scale you need a great team. Sheffield City Council along with Homes England helped us to get on and make Eyewitness Works happen. I think we can repeat that over the road where we’re mapping out our next project.” Kate Josephs, chief executive of Sheffield City Council, said: “We’ve got a very ambitious plan to build 20,000 new homes in the city centre area to maximise urban densification but as with projects like Eyewitness Works, not to do it in a way that’s cookie-cutter, not to do it in a way that’s not sensitive to the needs of new communities and neighbourhoods in the city centre.” Elsewhere in Sheffield, Capital & Centric, backed by South Yorkshire Pension Fund, is drafting the plans for Cannon Brewery, the 4.2-acre site that was formerly home to Stones Brewery but has been vacant since shutting its doors in 1999. It is anticipated that the project could see around £200m invested in Sheffield by delivering up to 500 homes alongside co-working and leisure spaces.  Heatley added: “It’s the same ingredients, but we’re just getting bigger and bigger every time.” Planning in Sheffield >>