Peel’s planning application for the redevelopment of the gateway Sovereign House site, which is located directly opposite Nottingham mainline station, was approved by Nottingham’s planning committee on Wednesday 16th December.
The redevelopment of this key site will ‘kick-start’ the regeneration of Nottingham’s Southside Regeneration Zone. Sovereign House is intended to be a hub of sustainable, commercial development in a prominent and accessible location which helps with the renaissance of this part of Nottingham. It will also bring forward much needed job opportunities.
The planning application was for a 220,000 sq ft of commercial office space which is being targeted towards large, corporate occupiers and SME’s as well as ‘start-ups’. The scheme also includes ancillary A1/A3 space at ground floor level plus a 200 bedroom hotel.
Fundamental to the scheme is how sustainable it will be, with an “Excellent” sustainability rating anticipated under the BREEAM code for sustainable property.
Peel is both a regeneration company with a strong track record for delivery and involved with some of the largest regeneration projects in the country including the 1m sq ft BBC relocation from London to MediaCityUK at Salford Quays, as well as a renewable energy company involved with delivering major scale wind, ‘waste-to-energy’ and tidal energy projects.
Once complete, the Sovereign House development will create in excess of 1,500 jobs in a new, modern Commercial Quarter of the city which will incorporate a high quality hotel, well designed public space and a scheme that works both with the Station Hub project and the broader Meadows area.
Richard Mawdsley, Development Suveryor at Peel said, “Despite the recession, we have kept faith in Sovereign House. It will offer something that the city doesn’t have at the moment – a commercial address that appeals to London’s ‘out-migrating’ companies who have had enough of the capitals creaking infrastructure. Nottingham has great skills, excellent quality of life and access to markets and hence should rightfully compete better with other regional centres. What Nottingham lacks is a recognised, modern, ‘green’ office address. As well as attracting new companies, it will also stem leakage of Nottingham’s current employers”.
The application is an outline application but with key elements ‘fixed’. Richard Mawdsley further comments, “Planning approval is one major step towards delivering bespoke premises for occupiers. Tenants are becoming more savvy in their demands. We need to be able to tailor floorspace demands to meet exactly what they need, whilst guaranteeing extremely high design quality.”
Peel are being advised by HKR Architects and planning and sustainability consultancy, NJL Consulting. Mark Saunders, Senior Planner at NJL said: “This permission for the redevelopment of Sovereign House marks a huge step forward for delivery of the site to give real impetus for the vision of the Southside Regeneration Area plans.
“Sovereign House is a very important scheme for Nottingham city centre offering a fantastic commercial space that the city currently lacks. The objective is to deliver a mixed-use scheme which will provide valuable employment opportunities for the local community.
“Peel and its project team have worked very hard to get the outline application to where it now stands for this key regeneration site. The outline planning application linked to setting parameters and design standards is a unique approach and we are pleased that this approach has been embraced by the City Council in this instance.
“The outline approval sets design and quality benchmarks and assurances at this stage which will give the City comfort as well as entice potential occupiers, by giving them peace of mind of the high standards that the development aims to meet.”