Once known as 'worstedpolis', Bradford was left languishing with the demise of the woollen industry in the middle of the 20th century, writes Sue Kelly. The city was left with Victorian style warehouses and its mills empty, apart from the cooing of the pigeons perching among the rafters.

In more recent times, the city's reputation took a big downward swing in 2001, when hundreds of rioters turned Bradford into a battlefield that left a trail of damage costing an estimated £7.5 million. The cost to the city's image, a great deal more.

But now there's a new resurgent confidence in the city and many Asian entrepreneurs are voting with their wallets as the city's image undergoes a transformation.

One property tycoon who is tipping the city to become one of Europe's most vibrant urban centres, has spent upwards of £30 million buying property, and not just odd apartments here and there, but whole blocks off-plan, starting with Byron Hall, before adding Victoria Mill, Saltaire and Lister's Mill in Manningham. All refurbishments of old mills and warehouses - aimed at the top end of the market.
Buying off plan typically offers savings of between ten and 15%, so by the time the properties are completed if you factor the automatic rise in value - which in Bradford is one of the highest in Yorkshire - then there is a tidy profit to be made.

Watford-born 34 year old multi-millionaire property developer Manoj Raithatha, whose company Summertime Properties invests in cities across the UK and Europe, is also a playwright whose work has appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and last year he won a BAFTA for his children's drama My Life as a Popat. His interest in Bradford was kindled about five years ago when he stayed in the city when his drama, British Born Asian and Proud, was staged in the Alhambra Studio.