Maurice Jones Maurice Jones was a builder and property developer who bought up the south side of Coronation Street and built the new houses and shop units in 1989 . Jones came from a working class background and grew up sharing a bedroom with four of his siblings . Like his father before him , he became a builder , and by 1989 he owned his own construction company , operating from premises in Ardwick . As he became more successful , Jones did less building work himself and turned his attentions towards property development . That summer , he started planning a new development between Arkwright Street and Coronation Street and bought up the required land , and also purchased advertising space in the " Weatherfield Recorder " to promote his investments . The last two pieces of the puzzle were the Community Centre and Baldwin ' s Casuals in Coronation Street . While the council were willing to negotiate the sale of the centre , Mike Baldwin would prove a tougher nut to crack . When he first approached Mike in July 1989 , Jones was met with a flat - out refusal . Mike gradually came round to the idea when Dawn Prescott found out about Jones ' s other investments from her estate agent contacts , including the fact that the centre was now his . Realising that Jones was counting on a sale , Mike sold the factory for far more than it was worth . When Mike announced to his machinists that he was selling up , he let them believe that Jones was intending to run the factory and so they were surprised when they arrived for work to find the factory gates locked . Jones told them the factory was closed but then faced a battle against the girls , who were advised by the Department of the Employment that Jones was responsible for their redundancy payments . Jones refused to pay up and gave Percy Sugden the job of looking after the empty unit until the bulldozers arrived . The factory and Centre were demolished on schedule but before building work started on the new development , the girls stepped up their battle for compensation ; Emily Bishop started a sit - in on the site , soon joined by the other girls . They were supported by Councillor Deirdre Barlow and the " Recorder " , despite Jones being an advertiser . Jones realised he was beaten and agreed to pay the girls redundancy . Jones managed the building work himself . In November , he arranged with Alec Gilroy a 5 - a - side football match between the builders and the Rovers ' regulars . He and Alec each bet £50 on their team to win , but the builders lost . The re - development scheme proved to be costlier than planned . In December , work was disrupted when the police excavated part of the site as they thought Alan Bradley , one of Jones ' s workers , might have buried Rita Fairclough there . No body was found but Jones sacked Alan . The following month , Jones had to pay compensation when Steve and Andy McDonald broke into the building site and drove a JCB onto the Street , smashing the Corner Shop window . The new houses and shop units were completed in February 1990 . No . 6 was earmarked for Jones ' s daughter Steph , who moved into the house with her new husband Des Barnes . Rita Fairclough bought the shop unit on the corner of Viaduct Street and moved The Kabin from its Rosamund Street premises onto Coronation Street . No . 4 was sold to Derek and Mavis Wilton , and No . 8 to Gail and Martin Platt . Phil Jennings bought the factory unit and Mike Baldwin bought the garage unit . No . 2 was the last to be sold ; it was leased to charity Friends of Weatherfield Hospital in early 1991 before the unit , along with the flat above , was finally bought by Denise Osbourne and turned into a salon in December 1992 .