First tenant signs up for scrapyard business park

The scrapyard is getting a new lease of life as a hub for businesses

The first tenant has signed up to a new business park being built on a former scrapyard in Derby.

Albert Looms closed in May 2024 after more than a century of trading and its seven-acre Spondon site was acquired for an undisclosed sum by Derby-based Ivygrove Developments Ltd.

Whitehouse Construction will be the first firm to move to the new Looms Business Park in Megaloughton Lane, said Ivygrove.

Whitehouse chairwoman Jo Ewart-Sear said the relocation from Ashbourne will help the firm "to thrive".

"Our business has been rooted in Derbyshire for close to 50 years.

"Partnering with Ivygrove to develop a space that reflects our heritage and supports our future growth is a natural step," she said.

The new headquarters for the firm will be 25,000 sq ft (2,320 sq m) over nearly two acres (0.8 hectares) of the site.

It will include office space, a compound for vehicles and plant equipment, and parking for more than 50 cars.

A planning application is yet to be submitted to Derby City Council.

The site was cleared more than a year ago after Albert Looms crushed its last car

Ivygrove, which is also working on Derby sites including Eagle Park in Alfreton Road and Merlin Park in Osmaston Road, said it hoped to build a further 80,000 sq ft (7,430 sq m) of units on the former Albert Looms site.

Ivygrove director Nick Blount said the Whitehouse agreement was "just the beginning" and that Ivygrove was "excited to bring Looms Business Park to life and support industrial growth across the city".

Albert Looms started trading in 1920, specialising in demolition work and dismantling railway rolling stock and had a direct rail link to Chaddesden Sidings from its yard.

It then began to dismantle cars in the early 1970s, in part due to the Dr Beeching cuts to the railways in the 1960s.

The firm closed last year after 104 years in business.