THE transformation of a former Derby "community pub" into shops and homes will begin in four to six weeks and lead to the creation of up to 30 jobs.
Derby City Council has granted planning permission for the conversion of the derelict Blue Boy, in Wiltshire Road, Chaddesden, by developer 1(NA) Mansfield Ltd.
Now Ben Taylor, head of retail agency for Innes England – the property consultants for the developer – has revealed that most of the retail space will be taken up by Heron Foods.
The majority of the East Yorkshire firm's stock is frozen food but it also sells other supermarket goods.
Mr Taylor said Heron Foods would take up 3,500 square feet of the retail space but that there would be between 900 and 2,500 square feet of space left for retail which has not yet been let.
He said Heron Foods should be operating by September.
The development will also see four flats created above the shops as well as up to eight houses at the back of the building.
People and businesses in the area have welcomed the news.
The Blue Boy is a locally listed building, built in 1936 in an art deco style with architecture that "clearly references ocean liners of the day", according to the planning application.
Bupinder Buctkuar, owner of Buk-Tar clothes and shoe shop, next door, said the conversion would be good for footfall in the area. He said: "The area could do with revamping and this is a step towards that. It's been a long time coming, so the sooner the better.
"I remember when Kwik Save used to be around the corner and that used to bring a lot of business."
Peter Alliss, 49, of Roe Farm Lane, which runs along one side of the building, said it was time a new use was found for the building as teenagers had been getting on to the derelict site "once or twice a week". He said: "It's good that they've put housing with it because there's a massive shortage at the moment."
In 2004, £400,000 of Government money was spent on refurbishing the Blue Boy as a community pub. That cash came through the New Deal for Communities Scheme, launched by the previous Labour Government to tackle issues in deprived areas.
In October 2008, Derwent Delivers, which took on the lease of the pub, announced it was losing money and the pub had to close. But, shortly afterwards, Inn Recovery took on the lease.
Since then, the building's previous owner, Enterprise Inns, has confirmed that the Blue Boy changed hands several times, before its sale to 1(NA) in September last year.
