ONE of York's major developers who re-established his property company in 2021 is looking ahead to a busy year after a whirlwind time.

Steve Davis has successfully acquired sites in York and Sheffield during the past year, through his re-launched company Grantside after a career break took him mountaineering around the globe.

First founded in 1993, Grantside has been successful with various planning applications in 2021 for the commercial, residential and logistics sectors, as well as buying York's former Kuda nightclub site and former Mecca bingo hall with partners North Star.

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Steve Davis, centre, with world record-breaking mountaineer Nirmal Purja, right Picture: Steve Davis

Grantside's ventures also included buying the former New Look store in Parliament Street through its partnership with York-based North Star, and securing a temporary lease for The Vintage Store to move into the prominent building.

A planning application has now been approved to regenerate the top floors of 4 - 6 Parliament Street into an aparthotel, with 21 self-contained holiday-let apartments and a 'hidden’ courtyard. The ground floor and basement will remain as retail.

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An artist's impression of the Parliament Street scheme in York.

Alongside his developments in 2021, Steve also attempted to climb Mount Everest and Lhotse in the Himalayas in April, but fell ill with Covid and had to be airlifted from base camp, with a spell in hospital in Kathmandu.

He returned to Nepal in October to successfully summit the 6,812m Ama Dablam mountain, in the eastern range of the Himalayas.

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Both expeditions were with record-breaking climber Nirmal Purja, aka Nims, and Mingma David Sherpa, who were part of the all-Nepali team to complete the first ever winter ascent of K2.

Nims has recently released his movie, 14 Peaks on Netflix - partly filmed on Manaslu on a previous expedition with Steve - documenting his world record-setting climb of all 14 8000m peaks in the Himalayas in just six months and six days.

Steve is now gearing up for another attempt at Everest and Lhotse next year, 2022, which forms part of his challenge to climb the highest peak in each of the seven continents of the world – Everest would be his fourth since starting in 2019.

Grantside has also been active in Sheffield city centre with two high-profile development projects in the pipeline.

The Hive development in Kelham Island is a new co-living and co-working concept with a strong active social community.

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The Hive, in Sheffield.

The company has also drawn up plans for 30,000 sq ft of office space through its CN Tower project with planning approval expected in early 2022. Both schemes have been designed to be highly sustainable and net zero carbon developments.

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The CN Tower project in Sheffield.

Later in 2022, Steve is hoping to climb Vinson Massif, the highest peak on the continent of Antarctica, and walk the last degree to the South Pole and is continuing to train for these new goals.

Meanwhile, Grantside will focus on repurposing city and town centre buildings, with an emphasis on sustainability, the environment and wellbeing as core principles in its developments, alongside new-build projects towards its goal of delivering only net zero carbon developments by 2030.

Grantside is expanding and establishing new relationships with other developers to deliver schemes through joint ventures to increase its capacity and workflow and deliver more projects in 2022.

Grantside has delivered more than £750 million worth of real estate across the UK.