Space NK and Federal sign for St Martins Yard on Coney Street
Helmsley Group has agreed two new lettings at St Martins Yard on Coney Street, York, with beauty retailer Space NK opening this month and café operator Federal to follow.
Both take space within the restored listed buildings at 3–7 Coney Street, the first commercial units to be brought forward as part of St Martins Yard, the opening phase of Helmsley Group's Coney Street Riverside regeneration.
Space NK returns to York
Space NK opens this month in the former JD Sports unit, marking the beauty retailer's return to York for the first time since 2022. The brand, which now trades from more than 80 stores across the UK and Ireland, has fitted the building out to its latest store design — a considerable investment in the street and a fit-out that does justice to the building it sits in.
Federal to bring a café and courtyard
Federal will take the neighbouring space, occupying ground and first floors with a courtyard to the rear. Bringing that courtyard back into use is a small but genuine step towards activating the public realm behind this stretch of Coney Street — exactly the kind of connection the wider Coney Street Riverside masterplan is designed to open up between the street and the river.
A full scheme of building works
Neither letting would have been possible without the work that came first. Helmsley Group, as landlord, has completed a comprehensive programme of building works across the buildings: new roofs, new windows, re-rendered elevations, restored shopfronts and external areas brought back into use.
The result is a substantial improvement, both physically and visually, to a prominent stretch of the street — and, just as importantly, the long-term preservation of a group of historic listed buildings that had been waiting some time for this kind of attention.
The first step in a bigger change
Coney Street already carries some of the strongest footfall in York. What these two lettings show is confidence — two well-regarded operators choosing to commit to the street ahead of the much larger changes now coming to it through Coney Street Riverside.
They are the first step in that regeneration, and a good indication of the appetite among quality operators for the right space in York city centre. Helmsley Group has separately continued to build its position on the street, acquiring three city centre freeholds over the past year.
Max Reeves, development director at Helmsley Group, said: "Getting Space NK and Federal signed up is a real vote of confidence in Coney Street and in York as a retail location. Both could have gone elsewhere. They chose here.
"We have put a great deal into these buildings — new roofs, new windows, re-rendered elevations, shopfronts brought back to how they should look. They are historic buildings and they deserved that investment. Seeing them occupied again by operators of this calibre, with a fit-out as good as Space NK's, is exactly what we hoped for.
"This is the first step. Opening up the space behind the buildings begins the process of activating the rear, and there is a great deal more to come on Coney Street over the next few years. It is a good moment for the street and a good moment for the city."