Salvation Army Citadel owner gives up on Sheffield redevelopment after 16 years

The owner of the former Salvation Army Citadel in Sheffield city centre has given up on redeveloping it after 16 years and nearly £2m spent.

Robert Hill has put the landmark building on Cross Burgess Street on the market saying it’s time for a “fresh face” to take on the challenge.

He bought it for £865,000 in 2007 and has put forward 11 proposals for bars, an Apple shop, clubs and restaurants which have cost him £1m over the years, he says. But they were all hamstrung by being next to huge regeneration projects including Hammerson’s £600m New Retail Quarter - which never happened - and the council’s £470m Heart of the City II, and then then closure of John Lewis.

Today, the Citadel stands overgrown, dilapidated and empty.

Mr Hill, aged 73, and from County Durham, said: “I’m disappointed. I started full of enthusiasm in 2007 and it was supposed to complete in 2011 and I was going to retire.

“I haven’t really got the enthusiasm for it any more, it needs a fresh face, someone who hasn’t got the history with Sheffield City Council or any of that stuff.”

Mr Hill said his projects struggled due to uncertainty.

“When Hammerson had the threat of a compulsory purchase order over everyone it wasn’t worth a carrot. 

“Now, if you want to know what’s happening with the old John Lewis building talk to Urban Splash.”

The council chose the firm - famous for revamping Park Hill flats - to redevelop the former department store earlier this year.

Mr Hill said the city council once offered to buy the Citadel but the amount was “insulting.” His most recent proposal was for a spa with a link to the under-construction Radisson Blu hotel. When that failed to take off he put it up for sale.

Now it is on the market with Paul Lancaster with no price attached but ‘offers invited’.

The building opened in 1894 and was in use by the Salvation Army for more than a century.