The co-founder and frontman of regional developer Cubex has left the business after 17 years and set up a new development venture.
Gavin Bridge has launched Spatia, an end-to-end development company that will bring forward mixed-use schemes through strategic partnerships with funders and workspace and housing specialists.
The business will work with private and public sector partners, focusing on large regenerations, low and zero-carbon housing and sustainable workspaces.
Bridge told EG: “The development business is really about building on the successes and the track record I’ve had in recent years and doing more of that transformational mixed-use regeneration.
“Spatia gives me the opportunity to work with a range of complementary funders, this will allow me to be completely flexible.”
Bridge co-founded Bristol-based Cubex in 2004 with Fiera Real Estate (previously Palmer Capital). It has delivered more than £750m in mixed-use developments, including the Finzels Reach scheme at the former Avon Fire Authority next to Bristol’s Floating Harbour.
At Spatia, Bridge aims to incorporate creative design, sustainable development and smart technology to tackle environmental challenges, for example in flood areas, providing green spaces and interactive experiences.
“All of those sort of things put a lot of the housebuilders off from working in urban locations, but really it makes it more interesting,” said Bridge.
The business is targeting urban development opportunities with an end value of more than £50m. It aims to develop residential schemes of more than 100 homes and offices of more than 50,000 sq ft.
“Mixed-use development gives you a greater chance of building a more balanced community,” said Bridge. “There are lots of really interesting and new ideas and some reworked old ideas about how we buy and rent homes, whether it is intergenerational living, build to rent, student accommodation or for sale.”
Spatia will seek sites on former industrial land and through repurposing redundant retail space and working with businesses that may be seeking to rationalise their estates through unconditional land sales.
The first scheme will be the Frome Gateway neighbourhood in partnership with PfP Capital, as part of the 1,500-home strategic venture previously established under Cubex. The partnership is currently on the hunt for further regeneration sites across the UK.
A second partnership, due to be unveiled later this year, will see Spatia team up with a social impact fund to deliver 2,500 low and zero-carbon homes over the next few years.
It will look to add new partnerships this year, working with local authorities, housing associations, fund managers and other landowners and investors on schemes in the Midlands, the South and South East and potentially the North West.
This could include supporting investors that have struggled to break into regional markets, or complex sites with a variety of uses calling for a number of collaborations.
Bridge said: “The property industry has become quite specific and specialised. Mixed-use regeneration and transformation allows you to draw on a number of themes and bring in specialist partners when you need.”
He added that the industry should be leading on sustainable development, not the government and argued now is the ideal time to take the lead on new initiatives.
“You might think it’s the wrong time, I don’t,” said Bridge. “Everything is changing. For a disruptive developer looking for opportunities and working with new partners it is a great time.”
To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette
