One of London’s biggest housing development sites is set to be delivered through a partnership between a leading housing association and a major international property developer, it has been announced today.
Peabody, London’s oldest housing charity, has selected Australian regeneration giant Lendlease as its preferred bidder to form a joint venture company to plan and build the 250-acre Thamesmead Waterfront development, in which 11,500 new homes are expected to be built over the next 30 years.
The site, which includes 2.5 kilometres of undeveloped land along the banks of the Thames in south-east London, anticipates having a new Docklands Light Railway station at its heart, better connecting a relatively isolated area with the rest of the city.
The project will also “rejuvenate the existing town centre,” according to the two organisations, who say they will “create one million square feet of new cultural, community and commercial space for Thamesmead and for London”.
Peabody has been the principal landowner in the wider Thamesmead area since 2014, and is already engaged in a major regeneration programme in partnership with the boroughs of Bexley and Greenwich, whose boundary the area straddles, Transport for London and the Greater London Authority. A new building provided as part of the Crossrail project was opened at Abbey Wood station, which serves another part of Thamesmead, in October 2017.
Thamesmead as a whole is characterised as spanning an area the same size as Central London, from King’s Cross to Charing Cross and Bond Street to Liverpool Street.
Peabody chief executive Brendan Sarsfield describes a “shared vision” of creating “thousands of new homes by the Thames” and powering the local economy with new commercial spaces and employment. His counterpart at Lendlease, Dan Labbad, said, “We are excited to collaborate with Peabody, the local community and businesses” and anticipated offering “a fresh approach to living in London,” aided by the area’s proximity to water and wildlife.
Details of the joint venture will be finalised by the summer, the two parties say.