News

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

Five buildings ranging from 7 to 29 storeys are proposed for the 0.8 hectare Fairfield Homes site next to the recently opened Fairfield Halls cultural venue.

Architect MICA designed four of the buildings, comprising 343 homes, while Common Ground Architecture designed a 78-home block.

The latest planning application builds on a 2017 planning consent, nearly doubling the number of homes from 218 and increasing the affordable housing from 18% to 20%.

Once planning consent is gained, the developer aims to start work early next year.

Value from the development of the Fairfield Homes site will be used to cross-fund Vinci’s £40m refurbishment of Fairfield Halls, which overran by £11m.

Colm Lacey, chief executive of Brick By Brick, said: “We have carried out extensive demolition and enabling works, on the site and we look forward to continuing this most exciting and vitally important project.

“This development has allowed us to fund the spectacular transformation of Fairfield Halls, which opened this month.

“Together, the schemes are fundamental to Croydon’s ongoing renaissance, adding to its fast-growing appeal as a place where people want to live, work and visit.”

The Fairfield Homes site is bound to the north by Croydon College, the College Tower site and Mondial House, both of which have planning consents for buildings of heights above 35 storeys and to the east is the mainline London to Brighton railway line.

Sir Robert McAlpine is construction manager to complete the Electric Boulevard phase of the project after replacing Bouygues during the preconstruction phase last year.

The new debt facility was raised from its existing lenders to continue with the delayed phase.

So far facade contractor Permasteelisa has been signed up for the main glazing package and specialist T Clarke will deliver the M&E works.

Phase 3 of the Battersea Power Station project will contain over 1,300 homes, a hotel, shops and restaurants.

The 42-acre site will also contain a public park and be served by a new Tube station on the new £1bn Northern Line extension, due to open next year.

It has been designed by architects, Gehry Partners and Foster + Partners.

Areal view of Foster’s undulating Battersea Roof Gardens building next to Ghery’s cluster of five buildings

Foster’s Battersea Roof Gardens will be styled in a subtle 1930s theme inspired by the Power Station. The northern hooked-shaped end of the building will be home to the art’otel, a new 167-room hotel boasting a rooftop swimming pool and bar.

Ghery flower building

Gehry’s Prospect Place comprises a cluster of five buildings each with striking sculptural façades inspired by London’s famous John Nash Regency terraces.

Each individual building has its own style. ‘The Flower’ building will sit at the centre of The Electric Boulevard forming a focal point between the other buildings and is destined to be a new landmark for London.

Now Redrow will press ahead with plans for 513 new rental homes in Southall and Colindale which will be professionally managed under the UNCLE brand.

They are the house builder’s third and fourth PRS schemes, as it aims to diversify its offering into private rental homes.

The £119m deal at Redrow’s flagship Colindale site in North London will see construction of 347 new flats.

The announcement follows the £82.7m deal Redrow announced with M&G Real Estate last year which brought a further 186 new rental homes to Colindale Gardens as well as 211 homes sold to L&Q in 2016.

Located in the Burnt Oak and Colindale Opportunity area, Colindale Gardens is a £1.2bn new community, which is being created by Redrow on the site of the former Peel Centre Metropolitan Police training college.

More than 2,900 new homes will be delivered over the next ten years.

At Southall in West London, Redrow will also deliver 166 one, two- and three-bedroom apartments in a £64m deal with Realstar.

The site sits adjacent to Redrow’s existing scheme The West Works, where the housebuilder is currently delivering 302 new homes as part of a mixed-use scheme.

Mark Parker, Managing Director of Redrow London, said: “Both Colindale and Southall are quickly defining themselves as new property hotspots as they undergo significant inward investment.”

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets will now consider plans put together in partnership with FirethornTrust.

The proposals include a 400 bedroom hotel and 279 serviced apartments which will create 300 construction jobs during the building phase.

Jonathan Manns, Head of Planning & Development at Rockwell said: “We are extremely proud of our proposals, which will maximise employment and training opportunities whilst significantly enhancing South Quay and the surrounding area.

“Rockwell is committed to the redevelopment of Quay House and we are excited to transform the currently vacant building into a landmark mixed-use development.

“This application follows extensive engagement with the local community and, drawing on inspiration from New York’s “highline”, the proposed public realm responds directly to the feedback we received from our consultation events.”

The £400m redevelopment plan will see up to 700 mixed-tenure homes built at Juniper Crescent and Gilbeys Yard estates next to the Camden Goods Yard site.

These two estates are separated by a large Morrisons supermarket, which is to be demolished to make way for a separate 600-home mixed-use scheme being jointly developed by house builder Barratt and the supermarket chain.

Countryside will jointly plan, design, fund and deliver the regeneration of both estates, subject to a positive resident ballot, over an eight-year programme.

A resident steering group has been part of the procurement team to select the joint venture partner following a vote to redevelop the site fully.

Residents will continue to be consulted prior to a final ballot in March 2020 to decide on the future of their estates.

Sketch of Juniper Crescent rebuild plan

Andy Fancy, managing director, Partnerships South (North and South), Countryside, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with One Housing on this landmark mixed-use regeneration scheme in the heart of Camden.

“We are looking to deliver more than three times as many high-quality homes including affordable homes as well as ensuring that local residents benefit from attractive public open spaces and crucial local amenities – all vital in creating sustainable communities.”

Gilbeys Yard redevelopment plan

Under the plan residents living on the estates would be temporarily moved elsewhere while the building work took place, before returning to a brand new property on Juniper Crescent and Gilbeys Yard once they had been built.

Work on the estate rebuild should begin on the ground some time in 2020.