Eden Park Developments has purchased 20 acres at a former British Aerospace and Royal Ordnance site in Buckshaw village, Preston, Lancashire on which to develop a £50 million retail and commercial centre.
This is the largest site purchased to date for Eden Park, whose core business has previously been smaller industrial developments of under five acres. The company is now expanding to incorporate larger scale commercial developments, as well as the smaller ones for which it is well known, into its portfolio.
It is also the first Eden Park site to be purchased under a funding agreement with Development Securities which provides the developer and its sister company, mixed use specialist Henry Davidson Developments, with access to £100 million over the next five years.
The land was purchased from Redrow Barratt which is masterminding the construction of 2,500 homes by themselves and a range of other residential developers on 157 acres of the 650 acre site. Around a thousand of these will be completed by August and the remainder finished by 2011. A second phase, for which planning permission is awaited, will see a further 1,000 homes constructed by 2015.
The development also contains 127 acres of commercial development, with operators including HelioSlough developing an industrial scheme, as well as a school, playing fields and public open spaces.
The construction of a new railway station, due to be completed in December next year which will run to Manchester, Manchester airport and Preston, will have a positive impact on the site’s environmental sustainability. It also has easy access to the M6, M61 and M65.
The Eden Park local centre will incorporate 43,000 sq ft (4,000 sq m) of retail space with around 60 one and two bedroom apartments above for private sale and scope for other commercial uses such as B1 offices.
Eden Park director Scott Davidson explained: “This is an exciting regeneration scheme and an excellent example of sustainability. The site as a whole will have 3,500 houses with offices and employment and even a specialist care village. The rail link will reduce the environmental impact on the roads.”
