Pictured above: Peter Connolly, Blueprint development director, Rachel Alger, Derwent Business Centre manager, and staff

Sustainable developer Blueprint is upgrading two properties in its investment portfolio as it reports demand returning after the credit crunch.

The Derwent Business Centre in Derby, a magnificent brick-built Victorian warehouse complete with vaulted ceilings, is getting an energy efficient heat and light system as part of a rolling £0.5 million improvement programme.

Meanwhile, at Fox Hill, Chesterfield, Blueprint is investing £100,000 in upgrading light industrial units.

This follows an announcement that Blueprint could start work on site later this year in Sadler Gate, Derby, where it plans to redevelop property it owns as a £16 million mixed use scheme.

Blueprint is best known for sustainable regeneration projects - such as Nottingham Science Park, Leicester's Phoenix Square and the planned Derby scheme - but it also owns hundreds of commercial investment properties stretching from The Fens to The Peak District. With a combined value of £19 million, they generate £2 million a year in rental income.

Nick Ebbs, Blueprint chief executive, says: "It must be one of the premier industrial commercial portfolios in the East Midlands, being predominantly modern and well built."

Comprising 300 properties on 20 estates across the East Midlands, it is overseen by Blueprint development director Peter Connolly and managed by regional agency Innes England.

Peter Connolly says: "It's a mixed portfolio of industrial and office, a lot of small workshop units built in the 1980s and 1990s to very good specification by the public sector to provide for the needs of SMEs because it was the sort of space the private market wasn't providing at the time."

 He sees demand seeping back, post credit crunch, from retail, office and commercial tenants: "We are seeing signs of a slightly higher level of economic activity generating enquires for existing properties and in response to pre-marketing of the new Derby project."

Blueprint aims to add value to the property portfolio through selective investments and proactive management, such as the improvements at the Derby Derwent business centre and the Chesterfield industrial site. Having generated value, it will progressively sell assets to fund more new developments.

The investments include city centre retail and office property in Derby, and industrial property around Phoenix Square in Leicester. Mostly, however, it comprises either offices and small light industrial units in rural areas, such as in Lincolnshire, to larger industrial units in former coalmining areas in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

The investments were sold into Blueprint by its public sector partners, the Homes and Communities Agency and East Midlands Development Agency, when it was set up, and matched by cash from the private sector partner, Aviva Investors' igloo Regeneration fund.

Blueprint became the UK's first 50-50 public-private local asset backed vehicle, creating a platform on which to carry out its sustainable urban regeneration development remit. 

So far, it has leveraged those assets to create the Nottingham Science Park extension, including two multi-award-winning buildings, No.1 Nottingham Science Park and the Highfields Automotive & Engineering Training Centre. It has also completed Leicester's digital media centre, Phoenix Square, a mix of independent cinema, digital arts, commercial and residential. 

In January, work began on the developer's first 100% residential project, Green Street in The Meadows, Nottingham. 

The planned Derby development, Sadler Square, will comprise high quality office space from 2,000 to 40,000 sq ft, six retail and leisure units from 1,000 to 11,000 sq ft with 25 individually designed homes featuring terraces and roof gardens. With Blueprint's commitment to sustainability, the development is designed to be rated BREEAM Excellent.

Nick Ebbs describes Derby's Cathedral Quarter where the new development is located as "one of the most exciting opportunities in the East Midlands".

The Derwent Business Centre, which houses 42 business units from 300 to 1,800 sq ft, cost Blueprint £2 million in 2005, and the developer has invested £100,000 a year in it since then.

Tenants range from micros and creative businesses to manufacturers.