South Reef, Canal Street is a development by Southreef Properties Limited that will completely transform what was the dull and semi derelict, piece of land between the Nottingham Canal and Canal Street. The £40M development was due for completion in 2009 and will provide more apartments together with leisure facilities, shops, offices and car parks. The architects for the development are Levitate of London and the principle contractors for the scheme were originally the long established local firm of Thomas Fish & Sons.
I say 'were', because back in April 2008 it was announced that the firm, established almost 200 years ago in 1811 had fallen victim to the credit crunch and bad debts, and was forced to call in the administrators. The scales were apparently finally tipped when a Northampton housing association failed to settle a bill for almost £1.5 Million. Almost immediately following the announcement, local entrepreneur & businessman Mr. Chek Whyte, head of the Chek Whyte Industries Group, purchased the company for £500,000 and he continued with the project still trading under the old Thomas Fish name. Mr. Whyte is well known in the city for his involvement in several well executed restoration projects. He was also planning a 50 storey skyscraper on land in the East Side Development Area, not far from South Reef.
Whilst the site stood silent when I visited at the end of April 2008, the change of ownership of the company caused only a very minor interruption to this project and progress then advanced at a very considerable pace until about July 2009 when it was announced that Mr. Check Whyte had himself become a victim of the credit crunch and stagnation of the property market, and that he was facing personal bankruptcy with debts of some £30 Million ! A staggering amount of personal debt. However, an agreement was reached with creditors that allowed him to continue to trade and to re-pay the debts from the sale of assets over a period of time and the work on this site continued but at a much slower pace.
