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Developing Great Places from Unused Spaces works

Vastint UK shares how Retrofit developments lead to thriving communities with over 98% of residents recommending living at Sugar House Island

Vastint is a leading European property developer with over 30 years’ experience specialising in the development of commercial and residential real estate, active in many countries across Europe.

In the UK, Vastint’s USP is that they specialise in unlocking the potential of large, city-centre brownfield sites, to create truly mixed-use schemes, where as little as possible is wasted.

2023 is to be one of their biggest years to date, with the next phase of their Sugar House Island (Stratford, east London) development due for completion in late spring. The site already hosts a thriving community with over 700 new residents, a new primary school with 50 students and 12 businesses employing over 175 people.

Focusing on community first and building a place for people to live and thrive works, with 98.5% of residents recommending living on Sugar House Island.

Richard Lam, Head of Construction South, UK explained: “Our aim from the beginning of the development of Sugar House Island was to create a thriving community as sustainably as possible by retrofitting existing buildings, reusing materials, preserving the original chimneys and working within the existing footprint of the Victorian warehouses which stood on site.

“Working with nine different architects we are creating 1,200 homes, 624,000 sq ft of commercial space, over 40,000 sq ft of retail space, at least three acres of open space and one new primary school – all with minimum waste.

“It’s great when we get such positive feedback from residents about how much they enjoy living here at Sugar House Island and it shows our strategy works.

“We’re looking forward to launching the next phase of the development this summer called Chimney Walk. This is the largest phase of the whole development and will comprise c.220,000 sq ft of commercial, CAT A office space, and 23,000 sq ft of ground floor retail spaces, across three buildings.”

Chimney Walk will feature three industrial era chimneys which are thought to date back to the late 19th or early 20th century. When works began on site the chimneys were de-constructed, the bricks carefully removed by hand, cleaned and then stored until they were ready to be re-built. Two of the three chimneys are now back in their original positions, with the third to follow in a later phase.

Chimney Walk is designed to be a hive of activity with a pedestrianised walkway, ground floor shops, café and bars. The three buildings names Type Building, The Ink House and Colour Works hark back to the Print industry which once operated at Sugar House Island for over a century.

The first commercial phase of Sugar House Island - Dane’s Yard – is 90% occupied with international tenants including Phaidon, Entain, Mainfreight, Alta Image and Dentaprime. Alongside these commercial tenants, the thriving community is developing on the site with independents such as ‘The Market’ convenience store, MARCHON gym and a sustainable gin company, Jim & Tonic. School 360 is the Island’s on-site primary school and The Talent House provides state-of-the-art music facilities including bookable dance and recording studios.

But, how does Vastint UK develop Great Places from Unused Spaces?

Richard Lam explains: “Working with heritage consultants Montague Evans we’ve preserved some of the original building footprints and features and, wherever possible we aim to retrofit and re-use original materials.

“Most of the materials from construction are reused including the concrete from overspill and pile cropping is crushed and put into a plot as pile mat. The previously contaminated land was remediated and cleaned up on site and re-used to build up site levels.

“95% of excess is recycled and reclaimed. Three of the original buildings were refurbished and brought back to life.

“Bricks from the substation and around the school were all re-used. Soil on site was remediated and reused under roads and for use across the development including Yellow London Stock bricks and paving.”

However, Michael Cronin, Head of Portfolio for Vastint UK explains that this is just the start. Connecting and communicating with the community is key.

“As soon as we were over the red line for Sugar House Island and before construction fully began, we immersed ourselves into the community. This included art sessions at schools, heritage and architecture talks with interested neighbours, a quarterly printed newsletter which includes job adverts and project updates.

Plus, its important to empower everyone working on site to take the time to talk to people, answer questions and be open.“

“It’s regular two-way conversations that build trust and respect. Vastint uses both formal and informal approaches including resident surveys, informal face to face conversations, initiatives such as resident and tenant events, food pop ups, as well as supporting resident-led activities including incubating resident start-ups.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katherine Busby .