Quinn Estates has submitted an EIA scoping application for Highsted Park in Sittingbourne, which includes up to 11,250 homes as well as circa 1.3 million sq ft of commercial space.
The commercial uses include 91 acres of new business space to double the size of Kent Science Park and turn it into an international bio-gateway for life sciences and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Incubator units, as well as retail and other associated uses, are also planned.
The application site, to be known as Highsted Park Garden Village, covers around 1,500 acres, and includes build-to-rent homes as well as open market housing. If the plans proceed, Kent Science Park would rival both Oxford and Cambridge’s science parks in facilities, size and standing.
Mark Quinn, Chairman, Quinn Estates said “We’ve had really positive discussions with major stakeholders and will continue to do so as the plans evolve. We have also had expressions of interest from major housebuilders keen on delivering the houses and who are attracted by the location.
“We’ll be consulting on our plans with the local community very soon, and feel the benefits of this scheme will be transformational for the town, borough and county. This site has been on the drawing board for 30 years and was in the original South East Plan as one of the most important infrastructure projects in the region, but has never come forward in such a comprehensive manner as this proposal.
“The financial business case has been forensically examined so that the highways improvements are deliverable, whilst the social, education, sporting and environmental benefits have been considered early so that the legacy is a garden village of the utmost quality that delivers for the current residents of Sittingbourne with solutions to some of the major issues that currently blight the town.”
A number of sites in the near vicinity, although in the local plan, have failed with transport and accessibility issues. Highsted Park proposes a brand new motorway junction on the M2 (J5a) that Quinn says should be a “game-changer for the town and surrounding areas”.
Quinn adds: “This scheme will offer a “once in a generation” infrastructure upgrade, providing the opportunity for traffic to avoid other already congested areas.
“Highsted Park will relieve development pressures on other sites which have significant infrastructure, transport and landscape constraints. A comprehensive development like this will provide a strategic opportunity, that individual or sporadic development will not be able to achieve.”
Who are Quinn Estates?
Set up in 1997, and based in Kent, the mixed-use specialist has built in excess of 2m sq ft of commercial space.
Looking forward, they own or control land and are actively involved in planning on 22,500 residential plots and 4m sq ft of commercial space, across 48 sites, all within the South East of England.
The developer also builds out its own schemes, being a main contractor. This is its first play at strategic development however, with the 1,500 acres in control of just three landowners, all of who are “on board” according to Quinn.
Quinn are also the development partner for both Ashford Borough Council and Swale Borough Council for their town centre redevelopments. ACQ ONE, a joint venture project in Ashford, is currently under construction, the largest office scheme to be built in Kent in the last 10 years.
Kent Science Park
Kent Science Park is one of the largest employment generators and creators of “value added” in the county, currently supporting more than 60 innovative companies and more than 1,600 jobs.
Quinn Estates estimate that the expansion of the park, in conjunction with other significant additional commercial uses proposed as part of the masterplan, will support in excess of 10,000 new jobs, “ensuring a truly sustainable proposal and lasting economic boost for the borough from a facility which can become of regional, national and international significance”.
To send feedback e-mail paul.wellman@egi.co.uk or tweet @paulwellman eg or @estatesgazette
