Completion date revealed for 31 'high-quality' flats and houses in Northampton town centre

A completion date has been revealed for a brand new ‘high-quality’ block of flats and houses in a busy part of Northampton town centre.

A mix of 31 houses and flats are being built on brownfield land on the corner of Castilian Street and Derngate, opposite the former Bang and Olufsen store.

Managing partner of developer Bauhaus Living, Andy James said: “Bauhaus Living provides high-quality new homes for sale or rent in Northamptonshire.

"This site is a mixture of mews style houses and flats – 31 in total – and will hopefully complete before Christmas this year.

"We took on the site with planning already approved. We have added sustainability measures meaning no gas boilers are needed for central heating and each dwelling will be linked to solar panels, plus 1GB ultrafast broadband connectivity. The houses on Derngate Place will benefit from EV chargers and will have private gated access.”

Asked to expand on the benefits of building on brownfield sites, Andy said: “As a small, local developer we take on brownfield sites that larger house builders shy away from.

"A lot of brownfield sites in Northampton are derelict buildings, unused car parks, etc. These are generally smaller sites then say a greenfield site outside of town.

"The brownfield central sites usually have their own set of challenges, though, such as difficult access, unpredictable ground conditions, there may be historic buildings that need to be retained, etc.

"Only smaller developers like ourselves would consider these difficult sites so there's a lot of preparation that goes into our developments.”

He added: “The good news is the result should bring people into the town centre.

"There's lots of talk of how to regenerate the town but this starts with people being there creating a need for shops and services. Ideally we are helping to create a thriving local community.”

A separate developer, from A Z Investments, recently revealed to this newspaper why flats conversions are popular in the town at the moment.

The A Z Investments spokesman said: "Everything we own in the town centre we are making residential.

"I’ve said to the council before, the town centre needs more residential. If there are people there then businesses can open and service them.

"At the moment, the town centre is a ghost town. Why would any business want to be in there?”