Downing plans £90m of South East student schemes
LIVERPOOL-based developer Downing has announced plans to embark on £90m worth of student property developments at a pair of schemes in London and Cambridge.
The developer is planning a £25m scheme at Acton in West London, where it has bought a 0.56-acre site from Goldcrest and a £65m scheme in Cambridge where it has bought three plots within developer Brookgate’s CB1 masterplan. Both sites already have planning consents in place.
The Acton scheme will house 184 studio apartments in two adjacent seven-storey buildings, which will have retail units at ground floor level. The buildings will have a target BREEAM rating of ‘excellent’ and will be close to North Acton tube station.
At Cambridge, meanwhile, the company will embark on a £65m development of three buildings containing 586 beds. Its 182,279 sq ft of space will feature a mix of student cluster rooms and studios, and is part of a wider development containing 800,000 sq ft of commercial space and 800,000 sq ft of residential apartments.
Paul Houghton, development director at Downing, said the deals reflected Downing’s strategy of focussing on developing superior, sustainable buildings in key UK student centres.
“The new funding environment and growing demand for higher quality living spaces with more amenities and better locations, means student accommodation is playing an increasingly important role in how universities attract fee-paying students.
“We’re excited to join the high profile CB1 development and to expand our presence in the capital.”
Work on the Acton scheme will be carried out by Downing’s in-house contracting division, George Downing Construction. A contractor has yet to be appointed for the Cambridge scheme.
Work on the Acton scheme is set to start in May and complete by September 2013, but its deal with Brookgate in Cambridge is not expected to complete until November, which means it will start on site next year.
