Subject to legal documentation, the Homes and Communities Agency is to invest £15m from its Home Building Fund to transform Ipswich’s infamous Winerack building into a 149-bed residential scheme with 5,000 sq ft of commercial units.
Along with an additional £5m from the New Anglia Local Economic Partnership, the money will help a local development consortium give the blighted waterfront building, which had been abandoned mid-construction in 2009, a new lease of life.
On the back of the commitment, Ipswich Wharf Developments, led by local developers John Howard and Jeremy Scowsill, plans to commence construction of the project in September, with the completion of the first 44 apartments scheduled for Christmas 2018.
The prominent waterfront landmark fell victim to the financial crash and has stood unclad and half built for almost a decade. City Living Developments had begun construction of its residential scheme Regatta Quay in 2007, only for it to be abandoned before the developer went into receivership.
Following almost two years of talks with HCA and backing from Ipswich Vision, a board of local stakeholders committed to regenerating the town centre, a local development consortium is finally able to get back on site.
HCA chief executive Nick Walkley says: “This is a great example of how government-backed investment can get cranes and diggers back on stalled building projects and start creating new homes and jobs.”
The LEP’s £5m loan is provided through its Growing Places Fund, a mechanism designed to help support development projects that might otherwise have stalled or failed to get going.
LEP chairman Mark Pendlington says: “The Winerack building has become a symbol of recession and it was critical its future was addressed. We are delighted to be able to support a project that reflects our ambition for Ipswich. We’re looking to create a town with opportunity and promise and the Winerack scheme will now become a symbol of its potential.”
HCA and the LEP will get a return on their investment through unit sales, together with the associated benefits to the local area and its economy.
The development consortium received funding advice from Zenzic Partners. Zenzic managing director Thomas Lloyd-Jones says: “There were several factors which made this difficult to fund in the general real estate market. HCA and the LEP have provided innovative funding support that allows the development to be delivered. For instance, presales money will be recycled to fund the construction costs of later phasing. These public sector bodies offer great structural flexibility and creative solutions to make schemes like this viable.”
John Howard, managing director of Ipswich Wharf Developments, says that securing funding was far more difficult than he had anticipated. “We are hugely appreciative of the HCA and LEP for their loans and for the faith they have shown in us. There has been a real political will in Ipswich to drive this forward,” he says.
Howard refurbished his first residential tower block in Ipswich back in 1986. Despite spending years delivering schemes elsewhere in the UK, he has kept a close eye on the fortunes of the Winerack building and in 2015 believed it was time to intervene.
He says: “Ipswich has attracted significant investment since the financial crisis. The waterfront has attracted a lot of development and residential values there have bounced back to around £350 per sq ft for the best product, which is close to what they were in 2007. They fell way below that in the intervening years, but they are now at a level that makes development viable.”
Amanda Crichton from local consultancy Crichton Properties says: “This building has been an eyesore for so many years and a reminder of difficult times. Rental values have moved on considerably since construction was abandoned and there will be plenty of demand from those wanting a waterfront location a few minutes’ walk from the station.”
Ipswich waterfront’s residential market has been transformed in recent years, with schemes delivered by developers including Bellway and Redrow. The Winerack scheme will look to build on their success as will other pipeline developments. Persimmon Homes has also revisited a residential waterfront scheme it abandoned in the recession and in May applied for detailed planning permission to build 113 homes on land at Griffin Wharf.
“The waterfront has improved dramatically since the Winerack scheme stalled, with the foundations laid by a number of other developments,” says Marc Langdon, head of new homes in Bidwells’ Norwich office. “The fact that it failed to be delivered has arguably worked in its favour because it can feed off the success of those residential projects that have gone before it and benefit from the community they have created.”
Howard was tempted to change the building’s name, coined by the local press to describe its skeletal structure, to distance the new scheme from any negative connotations. Yet he says: “In the end there seemed little point spending lots of money on a new branding exercise when everyone will refer to it as the Winerack. We’re happy with the name.”
