SOG Group has submitted a £190m masterplan to redevelop the 57-acre Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn into a net zero eco-village with 545 homes.
The proposal, submitted to Halton Borough Council, includes redeveloping a former 54-acre office complex, previously owned by chemical firm ICI.
SOG bought the site – including 300,000 sq ft of office accommodation, 83,000 sq ft of laboratory space, a modern fully equipped conference centre, a computer centre and a large restaurant – for an undisclosed sum in 2000.
The business and technical parks operator plans to transform the site into a mixed development with 545 homes, a six-storey 55,000 sq ft state-of-the-art vertical farm powered by hydrogen, a hotel, a conference suite, 20,000 sq ft of retail space, a restaurant or café, a bar, and a health and fitness centre, plus landscaping and “biodiversity improvements”, as well as retained office and laboratory space.
Out of the 545 homes, 20% will be affordable. The homes will include 172 one- and two-bed flats, a range of terraced, semi-detached, and detached houses with one to four bedrooms, 55 senior living apartments and 19 extra care apartments.
SOG has referenced Port Sunlight – the Merseyside village founded by industrialist William Hesketh Lever to house factory workers in 1888 – as an inspiration for the Heath Park eco-village.
A Vision for Heath Park, a report submitted to Halton Borough Council in support of the application, said: “We have developed the competition scheme into a vision for Heath Park’s future that reimagines the ethos and design principles of Port Sunlight for the 21st century: a lifetime place to live, work and play, in an environment that supports health and well-being.”
SOG Group owner and managing director John Lewis said: “Our masterplan has taken more than three years of meticulous research by SOG’s dedicated team of expert consultants, who have worked with leading academics from Lancaster and Liverpool Universities, to produce an exceptional application to put before the planners.”
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