The wind blew mercilessly through the desolate wasteland, whipping angrily at the huge marquee. Inside, dignitaries, politicians and the pick of the commercial property world sipped champagne while waiting for the speeches that officially launched The Bridge, Dartford. The windy March day saw another major development get under way as part of the much-lauded Thames Gateway Project.
In eight years’ time there will be, courtesy of a collaboration between fashionista-turned-house-designer Wayne Hemingway and George Wimpey, 1,500 houses on the site. It is to be, gushes Hemingway, a new community where people can work and live and that will be “colonised by urban pioneers…”. Flats will sell for between £170,000 for a one-bedroom and £190,000 for a two-bedroom, and they are all tied into a £400m mixed-use development that will include industrial and offices, a school, an innovation centre and a smattering of leisure.
As the outside wind gathers momentum, threatening to launch the marquee, VIPs and any other living fauna and flora into orbit over Dartford, it is hard to see how living on the 264-acre site could be as idyllic as Hemingway’s vision.
But this is where a big shed saves the day. ProLogis – one of three developers in the scheme, along with Dartford borough council and George Wimpey – has already prelet a 670,000 sq ft distribution centre on the eastern periphery to Sainsbury’s. Construction begins this month. And this, says one ProLogis wit, was designed deliberately to act as a wind breaker. Lucky old residents.
Choosing an ideal location
But, on a serious note, the industrial quarter, of which there is another 77,800 sq ft to let, is an important element of the scheme. Essentially, ProLogis’s interest in building at The Bridge was its location at junction 1 of the M25. This made it a strategic location for Sainsbury’s to build its regional distribution centre.
So keen was ProLogis on the area that it spent six years working up the development, the site of the former Joyce Green hospital, with Dartford borough council. It is ploughing £49.9m into the infrastructure alone.
The combination of industrial and residential elements also shows how times, and ProLogis, have changed. For a company synonymous with industrial development, mixed-use is becoming a bigger part of the business. One of the first moves into the sector started six years ago, with Grange Park at junction 15 of the M1, which has 1,500 homes and over 1m sq ft of distribution space.
Internationally, ProLogis has carried out a lot of army base closure work; one being a 300-acre site in downtown San Francisco.
But Jeff Schwartz, ProLogis’s global chief executive officer, sees The Bridge as a prime example of what the company can do on a brownfield site.
He explains: “We want this to show how brownfield development can work if you take a derelict site and build high-quality buildings. The elements – the residential, the industrial – will feed off each other.”
So, with the company’s involvement in more mixed-use, could there ever be a ProLogis residential arm, or retail arm? Schwartz says: “I can’t ever see us doing vertical residential construction and at the moment we are going to stick to what we know, but never say never.”
Whatever happens, the company intends to be in Britain for a while.
“Our goal is to grow organically and build our team here [in the UK] and to continue to acquire great sites and locations and build both inventory and speculative because the UK is still a great market to build speculatively,” says Schwartz.
And as the wind starts to settle around The Bridge, the prospect of living in the area becomes more appealing, with or without Sainsbury’s as a wind breaker.
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The 264-acre mixed-use scheme is one of the first major developments included in the Thames Gateway since the government launched Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future in 2003, and it is a joint development between Dartford borough council, ProLogis and George Wimpey. According to the developers, The Bridge “has been designed to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit… while integrated live/work units will be ideal for start up companies.” The scheme will include: ● 740,000 sq ft industrial and distribution space, of which 670,000 sq ft has been prelet to Sainsbury’s ● 500,000 sq ft of office space ● The 328,000 sq ft London Science Park, including a 30,000 sq ft innovation centre, which will offer up to 77 small units for start-up and stage-two companies ● 1,500 new homes ● All-weather sports fields ● Library ● Fast-track transport system linking The Bridge to Dartford town centre, neighbouring railway stations, Bluewater shopping centre and Darent Valley Hospital ● 80 acres of public open space including a nature reserve, footpaths and cycle ways ● Primary school l ● Local intranet facilities ● Health centre ● Drama studio ● Shopping complex |
