A joint venture between a Meyer Bergman-advised investment fund and Warrior Group aims to give the once grand Grade II-listed department store in Bayswater a new lease of life.

The Foster + Partners designed £1bn mixed-use scheme will see 500,000-plus sq ft of homes and shops built behind the existing 1911 facade.

The mixed-use development will also include a 111-room hotel. four-screen cinema and gym.

Specialist contractor Erith is well advanced with demolition at the site.

Redan Place townhouses form part of over 150 homes also planned for the shopping centre site

  A new public courtyard will be at the heart of the new scheme

A hotel is planned to boost footfall and bring the leisure and retail scheme to life

The scheme will open onto Queensway, which is also planned to undergo a £50m revamp.

The site is the first of a ’12 Estates’ regeneration programme, which will see around 5,200 homes delivered in Havering over the next 12 to 15 years.

Havering Council and Wates Residential are joint venture partners in the project to demolish and rebuild the Napier and New Plymouth House site in Rainham.

The plans must now be rubber-stamped by London’s mayor before the final decision is issued.

The overall programme aims to double the amount of council rented accommodation and more than double the number of affordable housing.

As part of the project, Havering Council and Wates Residential have pledged to deliver a borough-wide legacy by investing in education, training and skills opportunities, and by employing local businesses to work on the scheme.

Kilnbridge Construction Services, which has offices in Rainham, was awarded a contract to undertake controlled demolition of Napier and New Plymouth House, and a two-storey car park on Dunedin Road.

Kate Ives, Development Director for Wates Residential, said: “This is fantastic news for Havering. We have been working closely with our JV partner to ensure that the new homes in Havering are high-quality and fit in with the unique feel of local area.

“The public consultations have been really helpful in identifying what local residents want to see from the borough’s largest regeneration project and we look forward to starting construction in spring 2020.”

Understood to be worth around £480m, the complex Grade II building conversion is thought to be the biggest single-stage, fixed-price building contract to be let in the country.

The vast Edwardian building, where Winston Churchill once worked and whose 1,100 rooms are linked by more than two miles of corridors, is being redeveloped by the Hinduja Group and Spanish firm OHD.

Ardmore, which has delivered a string major London hotel conversions and new build projects in recent years, beat rivals Sir Robert McAlpine and Mace who had offered the client a construction management route to deliver the complex project.

Construction specialist Toureen has been on the job carrying out enabling works for around a year and will be novated to Ardmore.

The firm has now raised hoardings around the site where it will create the 125-room five-star hotel and 88 luxury apartments.

The complex project will double the number of floors from seven to 14. This will include adding three extra floors to the top as well as extending the existing two-floor basement down with four extra basement levels.

A new 25m swimming pool and ballroom will be built in the new basement below the existing central quadrangle.

Designs have been drawn up by EPR Architects alongside structural engineer Elliott Wood and services engineer Aecom with Gardiner & Theobold acting as cost consultants.

The first development sites for the firm in London are an 80-flat development site at Beam Park in Dagenham and a 77-flat development site at Fresh Wharf, a major riverside scheme close to Barking town centre.

Sigma will work with Countryside Properties and L&Q New Homes at the Beam Park scheme and with Countryside Properties and Notting Hill Developments at Fresh Wharf.

The combined development cost of the two sites is £44m.

Fresh Wharf is expected to be completed towards the end of next year, with Beam Park completing by Spring 2021.

The new homes will be marketed and let under the investor’s ‘Simple Life’ letting brand.

Ian Sutcliffe, group chief executive at Countryside Properties, said :”We are delighted to be extending our very successful partnership with Sigma Capital into the London market.

“We have delivered over 4,000 private rented homes over the past five years together as part of differentiated mixed tenure approach to regeneration sites. We anticipate continuing growth from our relationship with Sigma in London and beyond.”

Sigma’s move into London follows its recent launch in Scotland, where it has entered into a collaboration agreement with house builder Springfield Properties and is targeting the delivery of hundreds of new rental homes across Scotland’s major cities, including Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.

Outside London, Sigma has delivered more than 3,000 new rental homes across the regions, through its PRS property platform.

The £3bn scheme, on the south side of the Thames in Rotherhithe, ranks as the London developer’s most ambitious pipeline development.

Its approved masterplan submission included a detailed application for the first three buildings totalling 576,000 sq ft and outline planning for the 1.8m sq ft first phase with a development value of £700m.

The first three buildings will provide 265 homes, with around 35% affordable.

Building A1 will provide both residential and workspace, building A2 will be focused on workspace and a new leisure centre, and the third known as K1 will be wholly residential.

Chris Grigg, chief executive of British Land, said: “We have an incredible opportunity at Canada Water to create a vibrant neighbourhood for people to live, work and enjoy.

“We’re hugely excited about delivering this exceptional, mixed-use and sustainable landmark development, which has been designed to support people’s wellbeing.

“We thank the Council for all their hard-work and we look forward to continuing to work with them and the local community.”

The 53-acre masterplan site includes Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, Surrey Quays Leisure Park, the Printworks and the former Dock Offices courtyard.

British Land expects the whole masterplan to take around 15 years to deliver.

Canada Water 15-year masterplan

New public square at the heart of the Canada Water scheme

• 2 million sq. ft. of workspace to accommodate around 20,000 jobs;
• 1 million sq. ft. of retail, leisure, entertainment, education and community space; and
• 3,000 new homes, of which 35% will be affordable.

By 2024

• 265 new homes, a leisure centre, new public spaces, 330,000 sq. ft. workspace and around 2,300 jobs