First look behind plans to breathe new life into Coney Street, York

Independent retailers operating alongside hospitality venues, cafes, medical premises and university-led community ventures form part of a vision to rejuvenate Coney Street.

The riverside setting plays a key role in emerging plans to create a thriving, mixed-use commercial location, complete with a new public realm in a bid to give people more reason to visit Coney Street and linger.

The Helmsley Group has been working, in collaboration with City of York Council, on feasibility studies ready to go public in May and gather feedback, ahead of lodging a planning application in the summer or early autumn.

The York-based property investment specialist has owned key buildings, such as Boots, in Coney Street for a number of years, and made further acquisitions over the past year.

The team has been working with York architects Vincent & Brown to explore ways to better use the waterfront which is largely inaccessible, and create better connections to it from the high street.

A number of properties owned by Helmsley, such as the former Menkind shop, have private access to the riverside. This leads to an overgrown courtyard behind Holland & Barratt which is just down from Revolution York - another Helmsley property.

The idea of a riverside walkway has been mooted for years.

Edward Harrowsmith, a director at Helmsley Group, said they would also be looking at creating a Coney Street partnership with other landlords and owners 'to sell it as a retail destination'.

The heritage-led scheme could also see listed buildings repurposed and enhanced; poor quality, rear extensions could be renovated, while there is potential to bring forgotten upper floors back into use.

Helmsley also wants to draw on the street's history, and has leased the former Menkind space to the University of York for its Street Life venture.

The project scooped £469,765 from the Community Renewal Fund to support Coney Street's post-pandemic future by finding new uses for empty units, forging links between retail premises and their heritage, and bringing more people back to the city centre.

Edward gave an early glimpse of Helmsley's plans at a York Property Forum.

Highlighting how tough the past two years had been for many, he said: "Retailers have been hit the hardest, with no footfall for six to nine months in some instances. They have been crucified by the business rates. The consequence is that a lot of big institutional funds which owned these big high street stores have lost confidence and sold the properties."

Helmsley has snapped up some of these units, as a result.

"We really feel Coney Street is the heartbeat of the city centre," said Edward, adding that ownership of the river-front had previously been fragmented, involving institutional funds who had rarely visited York.

He said York enjoyed strong footfall, and benefitted from its tourism offer, two universities and very good business organisations.

"There's still a lot of appetite for inward investment to come into cities. The outlook is positive. There's a confidence coming back."

Helmsley Group, which is based at Monks Cross, on the edge of York, offers syndicated investment opportunities on behalf of its network of high-net worth investors and family offices.