It is a development that is set to see one of York’s best-known streets transformed.
Helmsley Group’s Coney Street Riverside scheme which was given green light this year aims to reconnect it with the River Ouse for the first time in 50 years.
Changes are set to be visible as early as next summer when works on the first opening from Coney Street to the river at Nos 3-7 and upper floor conversions begin.
They come ahead of works on the main portion of the waterfront scheme which are due to kick off in 2026.
Works include the creation of Waterloo Place, a new public space leading to a waterfront hosting retail and hospitality businesses.
A total of 358 student rooms are also set to be created in the upper floors of new buildings and those of numbers 21, 23, 25 and 33 and 19 which houses Next.
The potential economic benefits could be worth £175m over the next 15 years and create more than 1,150 jobs, according to estimates from consultants Aspinall Verdi and Kada Research.
Ahead of the works, Helmsley Group’s Max Reeves and Ed Harrowsmith showed the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) around the site to explain the scheme in more detail.
Nos 3 to 7 Coney Street
Zone One of the scheme is set to see a new passageway between Coney Street and the riverside created.
Part of the front of No. 5, which formerly housed Lush, is set to be demolished to create the snickleway leading to new restaurants, cafés and a pocket park.
Helmsley’s Investment Director Mr Harroway said the works at Zone One played a key role in the aim to fully link up the development at the back of Coney Street.
Mr Harrowsmith said: “The vacant upper floors also form part of the planning application for Zone One.
“One of the questions we’ve had from stakeholders is what the impact this part of the development will have on the rest of the street and the wider area.
“What we’re doing here is going to have a positive effect and we know that because we’ve already had new businesses move in nearby and enquiries about shops on the opposite side of Coney Street to the development.”
An existing passageway currently leads to an area used for bin stores, with the vacant upper floors of the buildings visible on one side and the River Ouse on the other.
Helmsley’s Development Director Mr Reeves said redeveloping the upper floors would be a challenge but they were optimistic about the end results.
He said: “When you’re working with empty, listed upper floors like those in Coney Street it can be quite difficult because no one’s been in them for 20 or 30 years.
“But they’re character properties and with some work they could make really good flats.
“One of our ideas is to create a pocket park at the back of the Zone One buildings.”
Mr Harrowsmith said they hoped the area overlooking the river would become a unique part of York.
He said: “We want it to be somewhere that people want to come and discover and explore.”
Mr Reeves said: “We’ve got to build the floor level up for Waterloo Place.
“When we bought the first building the council did a feasibility study for a new pedestrian bridge across the river to provide a route to and from the station.
“That’s not part of what we’re doing with our development but it remains an aspiration.”
The riverside, Waterloo Place and vision for Coney Street
Further along the rear of Coney Street, the currently inaccessible riverside is set to be turned into a waterfront walkway home to shops, bars and restaurants with student accommodation above.
It will be linked to Coney Street along a new thoroughfare known as Waterloo Place which is set to be created by the demolition of Boots.
Mr Reeves said works would include raising the height of part of the future waterfront area to accommodate changes in the level of the River Ouse.
In Coney Street itself, Mr Harrowsmith said changes being eyed as part of the revamp included reinstating some of its heritage features.
Mr Harrowsmith said: “We’re looking to get more independent shops in this part of Coney Street.
“We’ve done a lot of work looking at how historic shops here looked so we can incorporate that into the development.”