Award winning BID now in its third term.

Having re-established Derby City Centre Management through a service level agreement with the City Council, in 2007 pfbb UK led the development of the Cathedral Quarter BID in Derby City Centre and established important and productive working relationships with the businesses together with key partners to the Cathedral Quarter which included City Centre Management, Derby City Council, Cityscape, Marketing Derby and many other key organisations and agencies.

Since the first vote pfbb UK secured the contract to provide Project and Strategic Management to the Cathedral Quarter Company. The BID was established at a time when Westfield had just opened its £340 million shopping mall to the south of the city centre extracting Debenhams and Marks and Spencer from the Cathedral Quarter area. There was considerable concern that the historical part of the city centre would decay and become an urban waste land.

The BID set out to call this northern part of the city centre the ‘Cathedral Quarter’ and had a vision to establish it as a destination in its own right led by brand values of individual, diverse and inspiring. pfbb UK has succeeded in developing a distinct identity for the area and within the first two years of the BID starting it was voted by the Times newspaper as the 13th best place in the UK for a getaway weekend.

The area is now highly respected as a place which attracts premium national and independent retail brands, where there is always something happening, and which has a distinctive lifestyle. It has also established itself as the commercial core of the city centre for professional services and has seen two new office builds in the last two years and two significant listed heritage buildings, including a grade 1, occupied by accountant’s and solicitor’s firms who see the area as having a kudos which could not exist on a business park.

Footfall has bucked the trend throughout the recession, sales are more buoyant here than any other part of the city centre and the area has seen the development of three hotels, including a five star boutique hotel, called the Cathedral Quarter Hotel, when there were no hotels when the BID first started. The BID successfully went through renewal in 2012 and again in 2017. It is now in its third term. The Cathedral Quarter has won two prestigious awards – the ATCM’s 2016 BID of the Year and the Great British High Street of the Year City Location award 2016. It continues to be presented with further accolades such as the Purple Flag accreditation and recognition for their partnership work in the PEEP (Proactive Engagement and Enforcement Programme) to tackle antisocial behaviour and rough sleeping in the city of Derby.

The Cathedral Quarter BID’s response to COVID-19 has centred on providing clear information to businesses during uncertain times, supporting them in accessing much-needed funding, lobbying on their behalf for greater assistance and providing security during periods of restrictions and lockdowns. The BID has also continued to work with partners to implement plans to assist the recovery of the local economy, both in the short and long term.

Significant Achievements

• One of the first BIDs in the UK to be awarded the IPM and BID Foundations’ BID industry kitemark for its governance and quality of its work. See more here.
• Won ATCM National BID of the Year in 2016 -see more here.
• Won Great British High Street Award 2016 – judges singling out the BID’s integrated approach to place branding for praise.
• Acclaimed by Historic England as a BID which is ‘curating a judicious mix of independent local traders and premium national brands’. See here for more
• Acclaimed in the BID Foundation’s ‘Best Practice in BIDs’ for its PEEP’s initiative – see more here
• New businesses, such as White Stuff, Joules, Cosy Club and Turtle Bay, and national accounting firm Smith Cooper, choose the Cathedral Quarter
• Retail sales performances exceeding levels seen in the rest of the city centre*
• In second year of BID voted by the Times Newspaper as the 13th best place for a get-away weekend
• Establishment of successful loyalty schemes, encouraging engagement with and providing benefits for employees in the BID, and loyalty promotions for visitors and shoppers
• Effective email marketing and social media management
• Established weekly street entertainment programme
• £130 million of investment in the area since the BID started.

*figures from ‘Sales Monitor’ service operated by pfbbUK  (see Sales Monitor in Services section)