'Luxury' development run by ‘build a billion’ chief executive in line to receive £375,000 from the East Midlands Mayor

An East Midlands Combined County Authority report shows Kapital Development, run by Keith Punler, has applied for £375,000 to finish its renovation of the former Brooke Mill in Belper into 16 ‘luxury’ flats.

The report says: “The applicant is unable to progress due to extensive site abnormal costs.”

In late 2021, Amber Valley Borough Council granted permission to AG Group for the conversion of the former FUCHS Silkolene factory site off Derby Road, close to Morrisons, into 16 apartments.

The three-storey former warehouse was originally used by renowned hosiery company Ward, Brettle and Ward, supplying cloth, hosiery, haberdashery and blankets to London’s drapers for decades.

It was built in the early 1800s and is Grade-II listed and was last used by motorcycle lubricant manufacturer FUCHS Silkolene but was left derelict for over a decade.

AG Group, through AG Homes, had been progressing with the development but filed for insolvency in mid 2023, with the firm now fully liquidated.

The scheme has now been taken on by Kapital Development, run by chief executive Keith Punler, who is credited on the company website with “directly generating and delivering over £1 billion of revenue for his businesses” and is host of the “Build a Billion Mastermind” business mentoring programme which aims to help people “think and grow rich”.

Two-bed flats on the development are already being advertised for sale ranging from £250,000 to £390,000, promising “luxury, contemporary living”, with completions from this spring.

Kapital has been drafted into the combined authority’s pipeline for money from its brownfield housing fund as one of the replacements for other firms who have dropped out due to not meeting criteria or not being able to utilise the money within the right timescale.

A full business case has been submitted to the combined authority, overseen by Mayor Claire Ward (Labour), with an outcome expected by the end of last month.

The combined authority report says its consultants Cushman & Wakefield, and its external lawyers Trowers and Hamlin and Browne Jacobsen, have “set aside resources” to enter into grant agreements by the end of March.

In a statement, Mr Punler said: “We applied for regeneration funding in line with the council’s programme designed to help bring long-derelict and previously developed sites back into productive use.

“Brooke Mill is a Grade-II listed building within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site and has stood vacant and part-completed for many years.

“Its historic industrial use has left significant contamination and structural issues, alongside complex heritage restoration requirements.

“Sites of this nature are exceptionally challenging and costly to remediate, which is precisely the type of circumstance funding programmes are intended to address.

“The project had previously stalled before our involvement following the former developer’s insolvency and inability to resolve these issues.

“Since taking on the site in partnership with the lender of the collapsed previous developer, we have been working with specialist consultants, regulators and funding partners to address inherited environmental and planning constraints and put in place a clear, deliverable path to bring the building back into sustainable residential use, drawing on over 35 years of experience in heritage-led housing delivery.

“The funding application relates specifically to abnormal remediation and heritage restoration works required to make the site safe and viable.

“The funding supports the essential remediation and restoration needed to bring this historic building back into use, enabling the delivery of new homes.

“The completed apartments prices range from around £240,000, with an average of well below £290,000, which is broadly in line with average house prices in both Belper and the UK.

“This reflects local market demand for well-located, high-quality homes within a restored historic building.

“We remain optimistic that, with successful grant funding support, this long-stalled site can be brought forward in a timely manner, enabling the restoration of an important heritage asset and the delivery of much-needed homes for the local area.”

Property website Rightmove detail the average house price in Belper over the last year is £263,885, but that the average price of flats is £137,136.

Meanwhile, fellow property website Zoopla says the average house price in Belper over the last year is £260,097, with the average flat price sitting at £142,378.

An EMCCA spokesperson said: “We have received an application for the Brooke Mill development in Belper to our Brownfield Housing Fund, which is a fund that is open to new build schemes across the region.

“All applications go through our rigorous checks before any funding decision can be made. They are all independently assessed against a clear set of criteria, including value for money and being able to deliver high-quality homes on previously developed land.

“The Brownfield Housing Fund is part of Mayor Claire’s ambition to build 100,00 homes by 2035. This fund is meant to unlock homes that may not have been built because of challenging brownfield sites.”