Ones to watch: Midlands schemes making waves

Across the Midlands, developers and their partners are cracking on with projects large and small. Here are a few that,for one reason or another  – a start on site, a new phase, a development agreement or funding announcement – have caught the eye in 2025, and might make a difference in the years ahead.

Broad Marsh, Nottingham

Credit: Google Earth

Developer: Homes England

“What to do with Broad Marsh” might be one of the longer-running puzzles in UK property circles, but there may finally be light at the end of the tunnel. In March 2025, Homes England announced the purchase of the site from Nottingham City Council. The government’s housing and regeneration agency has taken on a council ownership comprising the former shopping centre, land to the west of the Green Heart, a multi-storey car park, Severns House and a former college site. Next up, de-risking the site by a programme including demolitions and enabling works, to take it towards development-ready status and hopefully attract investors with the means to deliver the 1,000 homes and 200,000 sq ft of  retail, office and community spaces Homes England hopes for.

Smithfield, Stoke-on-Trent

3 Smithfield is consented. Credit: Genr8

Developer: Genr8

A £250m transformational masterplan for Hanley, development at Smithfield to date includes a 210,000 sq ft grade A office space, along with 11,000 sq ft managed workspace, a 140-key Hilton Garden Inn Hotel, a 730-space multi-storey car park, and the 151-home Clayworks build-to-rent block. A second Clayworks phase, and a possible three further commercial buildings are in the masterplan.

Tea Factory, Birmingham

Credit: via Barques

Developer: Stoford

Work started in February 2024 on the redevelopment of the former tea factory in Digbeth in a project that will include a new home for BBC Midlands’ teams in the city. Stoford, a prolific developer based in the city’s Jewellery Quarter, is leading on the 84,000 sq ft scheme, designed by Howells. The reworking of the 1930s complex involves partial demolition, along with the preservation of the Bordesley Street frontage. The project is scheduled for completion in 2026.

Birmingham Sports Quarter, Birmingham

Credit: Knighthead

Developer: Knighthead Capital Management

Knighthead is the owner of Birmingham City FC, anchor of the project with a 62,000-capacity stadium, double the size of its current St Andrews home. The venue will have a retractable pitch, making it flexible for hosting major events, while the complex is also expected to include a 15,000 to 20,000-capacity arena and a “show pitch”. Knighthead completed the purchase of the 48-acre former Birmingham Wheels site in Bordesley in 2024, one year after taking over Blues. Less than a mile from St Andrews, the site has long been spoken of as a possible new home for the club, but the incoming US regime has been the first to put its money where its mouth is. Expanding the Midland Metro to give the site a direct tram line is on the cards. Head honcho Tom Wagner wants the club in place by the 2030-31 season.

Arden Cross, Birmingham

Credit: Muse

Developer: Muse

Arden Cross is billed as a £3.2bn opportunity. Close to Birmingham International Airport and an HS2 Interchange, developer Muse is working with the University of Warwick and land-owning consortium Arden Cross Ltd. An agreement was signed in March this year that should pave the way for 3,000 homes, and up to 6m sq ft of commercial space anchored by a healthtech campus.

Smithfield Riverside, Shrewsbury

Credit: via Counter Context

Developer: Shropshire Council and RivingtonHark

In April this year, the second phase of this regeneration project was approved in outline. Smithfield Riverside is expected to transform the area between the River Severn and the Darwin Centre. Phase one, using Levelling Up Fund cash, was approved in 2024 and work is well underway, with the former Riverside shopping centre and medical practice now demolished, paving the way for ‘Riverside Gardens’ – a new outdoor public park on Roushill – and opening up the site to enable further regeneration. Phase two is an outline application and secures the principle of development for three key plots located between Smithfield Road, Raven Meadows and the new park, expected to support a complementary mix of homes, offices and a hotel.

Etruscan Square, Stoke-on-Trent

Credit: Stoke-on-Trent City Council

Developer: Genr8 Kajima Regeneration

Genr8 Kajima Regeneration was announced in February 2025 as preferred bidder by Stoke-on-Trent City Council for this project, where it intends to work with partners including PfP Igloo to deliver a range of residential tenures across Etruscan Square – one of the Midlands’ largest cleared city centre regeneration sites – and other sites, with leisure and commercial alongside. With an initial 300 homes consented, site investigations have started, with a start on site hoped for in 2027. Development of the site, formerly home to a bus station and the East-West Precinct, is supported by £20m of government funding. Smithfield and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery are near neighbours.

Becketwell, Derby

Credit: Grainger

Developer: St James Securities

In a major fillip for Derby’s regeneration efforts, a £46m events venue, with a capacity of 3,500, opened this year, with local firm Vaillant securing naming rights for five years for a destination that fills the gap left by the Assembly Rooms’ 2014 closure. The venue sits within the wider £200m Becketwell regeneration scheme, which also includes a 272-apartment Grainger BTR development – The Condor – and a new public square. Peveril Securities, the development arm of Bowmer + Kirkland, is on board as SJS’s joint venture partner. Interested parties, including the city council and East Midlands Combined County Authority, now have their heads together to bring forward grade A office space at the scheme.

Canalside South, Wolverhampton

Credit: Wavensmere

Developer: Wavensmere Homes

Wavensmere is working with the local authority and the Canal & River Trust on this project, which is backed by the West Midlands Combined Authority. Derelict for 15 years, the site is earmarked for 530 energy-efficient homes a short distance from the city’s transport interchange. Preparatory works are taking place ahead of a three-stage development that will be delivered east-west across the site. WMCA has provided a £20m loan to the developer, which is expected to deliver the 153-home phase one – comprising two- and three-bedroom houses – in Q2 2027. Glancy Nicholls is the architect, with the scheme as a whole inked in to provide 378 houses, 145 flats, and a small co-living building.

Nightingale Quarter, Derby

Credit: Wavensmere

Developer: Wavensmere Homes

Birmingham-headquartered Wavensmere Homes has 3,500 homes on site, or currently in planning, making it a critical regional player as the UK looks to provide 1.5m new homes over the current Parliament. The firm is in the final phase of the £175m Nightingale Quarter, which is the redevelopment of the former Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, into 925 energy-efficient houses, apartments, and community amenities. In the same city, Wavensmere started work in late 2024 on Friar Gate Goods Yard, a 276-home scheme with the first homes available from 2026.

Foundry Business Park, Bilston

Credit: via Barques

Developer: Goold Estates

Work stated in August 2025  on this £28m Black Country development, the final phase of Bilston Urban Village. The plan is to transform 15 derelict acres into a 166,500 sq ft industrial & logistics hub, to which end the WMCA has provided a £12.5m investment. Goold, chosen as City of Wolverhampton Council’s preferred developer and subsequently buying the site, selected Caddick Construction as its main contractor.

Port Loop, Birmingham

Credit: PfP

Developer: Places for People, Urban Splash

Port Loop has had a big 2025, with April seeing completion and handover for the 58-apartment Mansion House, and the announcement that  longstanding collaborator Civic Square had committed to 48,000 sq ft within Tubeworks – a collection of historic industrial buildings within the heart of the masterplan, totalling 100,000 sq ft. Civic Square will build on earlier successes – open-air cinemas, supper clubs – with more community events. The 43-acre brownfield Port Loop has seen three phases of housing completed, along with a park. When complete, this will be a community of 1,000 homes. West Midlands Combined Authority invested £13m in 2023 to help deliver phase two, while this year the Mayor of the West Midlands announced a further £1.7m to provide another 124 social and affordable homes.

Great Charles Street residential, Birmingham

Credit: Moda

Developer: Moda

BTR specialist Moda topped out its 722-home neighbourhood on the edge of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in June 2025. Sisk is the contractor, with a funding JV led by Apache Capital and its investors Harrison Street and NFU Mutual fuelling the £300m development. The scheme, located on the former Ludgate Hill car park, started on site in April 2023 and is made up of three blocks ranging from six to 39 storeys. It will feature homes of one to three bedrooms, with amenities including a 24/7 gym, co-working spaces, and private dining rooms. Moda has already found local success with The Mercian, the 481-apartment development which became Birmingham’s tallest tower, and Loudon’s Yard, a 400-home Edgbaston project completed in November 2024.

Stone Yard, Birmingham

Credit: Moda

Developer: Moda/Aviva

In July 2025, it was announced that Homes England, Aviva Capital Partners, Moda Group, NatWest, and the West Midlands Combined Authority had completed a landmark investment deal to unlock a £200m, 1,000-home rental community in Digbeth. The funding package includes debt financing from NatWest and Homes England via the Home Building Fund, supporting phase one of the BTR scheme, 605 homes across four blocks. In addition, WMCA has provided brownfield grant funding enabling the project to increase its affordable housing provision to 20%. A future phase will deliver a further three blocks, bringing the total number of homes at Stone Yard to 995.

Langley Sustainable Urban Extension, Sutton Coldfield

Credit: BCC

Developer: Birmingham City Council

Langley SUE is a 740-acre, 5,500-home masterplan that will include a major district centre and two minor centres, along with a secondary school, three primary schools and a community sports hub. Savills’ urban design studio and planning teams are key consultants on the project, which is central to BCC’s plans to provide 51,000 more homes by 2031. Summer 2023 saw a full planning application lodged for demolitions and site preparation. Bellway and Vistry are among the housebuilders involved. The site is close to the Peddimore employment site, which is being advanced by IM Properties in a separate application.