Karis News

The Frank Gehry designed £290 million redevelopment of the King Alfred sports and leisure centre on the seafront in Hove gained planning consent at a committee meeting last Friday.

Siep Hoeksma, Country Manager, ING Real Estate Development UK. commenting on the result said:”We are delighted that Brighton & Hove City Council has approved the resolution to grant consent to our plans for the redevelopment of the King Alfred. This is the culmination of four years of detailed design and consultation and we would like to thank everyone and especially our professional and designers team who have contributed towards making this such an outstanding project.”

The Council had been unable to unlock the potential of this brownfield site for decades until Karis Holdings, the joint venture between Karis Developments and ING Real Estate, brought together the talents of Frank Gehry and the specialist skills of HOK Sport to produce a stunning solution which will deliver, at no cost to the City, a brand new sports and swimming centre for the people of Brighton & Hove. The new sports centre will provide facilities up to 50% larger than the existing dilapidated centre.

The sports centre links the two residential towers and sits in the middle of the eight perimeter blocks, which together provide 751 apartments and will ease the considerable pressure for new homes in the City. The high quality apartments will provide 475 for the open market and 276 much needed affordable homes, including 206 shared ownership homes and 70 apartments available for rent. The cost of the affordable homes will be approximately 50% less than equivalent market values, with rents for a one bedroom apartment in the region of £70 per week.

Josh Arghiros, Karis Managing Director “This really is great news for us and Brighton & Hove. We are now looking forward to working with the Council to fulfill the conditions of the planning approval and we hope to commence on site early next year. The proposals will move towards establishing Brighton and Hove as one of the great international cities and we look forward to delivering this world class project as soon as possible.”

The King Alfred redevelopment will provide a mix and range of homes that will provide a substantial contribution towards meeting the City’s housing needs and local people are already registering their interest. In particular rising house prices and low wages are driving up the demand for the affordable homes designed by Frank Gehry.

Lorelei Scott, a newly qualified children’s nurse at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital in Brighton, was forced to move out of the city because of disproportionately high rents. She said: “I would love to work and live in Brighton and Hove. I have lived in the area for more than twenty years but had to move back home with my mother because I just couldn’t afford to rent on my own. I now live in Lancing but it would be really good to live closer to the hospital as parking is so difficult and I don’t feel safe using public transport at night, particularly as this involves two buses and a train. Living at the King Alfred would mean that I could get rid of my car and take a short bus ride to work.

“Now that I’m a fully trained nurse I would love to get a foot on the housing ladder and I think it’s brilliant that the King Alfred could give me this opportunity. It would be a dream come true to have a flat on the seafront designed by Frank Gehry.”

The King Alfred development will create 276 affordable homes, including 200 shared ownership homes and 76 apartments available for rent. The cost of the affordable homes will be approximately 50% less than equivalent market values, with rents for a one bedroom apartment in the region of £70 per week.

Dale Meredith, Development Director of Southern Housing Group who are developing the affordable homes in partnership with Karis Holdings, said: “The demand for affordable housing in Brighton and Hove is very strong. Southern Housing Group’s recent developments in the city have all sold very quickly. We sold 90 homes on a shared ownership basis in Brighton and Hove in just the last nine months, which is indicative of the limited supply of affordable housing in the City.

“Whilst we have several more shared ownership projects in the pipeline the scale of the provision within the King Alfred project offers us a tremendous opportunity to make a significant contribution to meeting housing need in Brighton and Hove.”

Josh Arghiros, Karis Managing Director, added: “The King Alfred proposals give people in all income levels the opportunity to live in this unique development. Every home has been designed by Frank Gehry to an extremely high specification and a significant number of people have already registered their interest for a home in this unique seafront development.”

Last year a total of just 145 affordable homes were built in the city - the King Alfred plans will deliver almost double that number. This is an opportunity all councillors should embrace - the city just cannot afford to under-develop sites like the King Alfred.

Background Facts

Rental costs per month for Q4 2006:

• One bed flat - £ 653
• Two bed flat - £ 936
• Three bed house - £1,134
• Four bed house - £1,549

Average income multiples for a mortgage:

• One bed flat x 7.25
• Two bed flat x 9.48
• Three bed house x 11.94
• Four bed house x 15.35

Total annual need for affordable housing is 2,250. The annual shortfall in supply of affordable housing is 1,202 which is projected to rise to 7,212 units by 2011.

In excess of 8,000 people are on the Council’s housing needs register (i.e. they either have no home, are hidden households or their existing home does not fulfill their needs). The Council only owns 12,500 council homes.

The population of Brighton and Hove is predicted to increase by 33,000 over the next 20 years. 27,000 people will be of working age and hence seeking jobs.

Land Registry figures for Q4 2006 show the average property in Brighton & Hove now costs £248,062. The cheapest entry level property requires an income of £29,000 to purchase. The average salary in Brighton & Hove is £24,024 (Q4 2006)

Karis Holdings is a joint venture between ING Real Estate and Karis Developments

A new exploded diagram of the sports centre proposed for the King Alfred redevelopment illustrates just what an outstanding facility lies at the heart of the stunning, Gehry design.

The Sports Centre proposals meet all the requirements set by the Council, which have been based upon clear advice from Sport England and consultation with all local sports user groups from Badminton and Basketball interests to the Shiverers and the Marlins Swimming Clubs.

The proposals fulfill both regional and national priorities for sport, and are strongly supported by the Sussex County Sports Partnership. This can be contrasted with ill-considered ideas floated by objectors to the Gehry scheme which suggest an Olympic pool instead of the three highly flexible pools designed with the needs of the community as well as sports enthusiasts in mind.

Jack Wilkinson, an adviser to Sussex County Sports Partnership and who worked for Sport England when the brief was drawn up commented: “Investment in new sports facilities in Brighton & Hove is a matter of urgency. The redevelopment of the King Alfred has been under discussion for many years during which time modern public sports facilities have been built throughout the country, not least in Sussex. The plans we now see have been carefully developed within the context of a regional and national sports strategy to meet the needs of the residents of Brighton and Hove and will provide the City with facilities it needs for the future. The innovations in design and latest state-of-the art features will attract a lot of attention but the critical point is that this will be open to everyone, serving the whole community, offering a wide range of activities, for all ages and levels of ability and I am very happy to endorse the proposals.”

Dee Dee Pickering of Shiverers Swimming Club is really looking forward to the vastly improved swimming facilities: “It’s great to see the plans in such detail and the new larger swimming pools will be excellent for all levels of swimmer from learners to recreation swimmers and elite performers. The movable floors in the teaching and main pools will greatly enhance the range of swimming opportunities and the leisure pool will be a great introduction for children to water”

A representative of the Marlins Swimming Club said that the club’s swimmers with a disability are delighted with the proposals for the new sports centre. “Our members will benefit greatly from the tremendous access to the new facility. Lifts directly from the car park, spacious changing accommodation, innovative ‘water lift’ and moveable floors in the pools will all combine to give first class access for swimmers with a disability”.

These words are echoed by all types of other sports groups who will benefit from the new facilities:

Seagulls under nine’s football coach -

“We’re looking forward to a better and bigger sports hall for football to attract more children to play.”

Badminton player, Tom Streather -

“The improved lighting, the new flooring and modern facilities for the main sports hall will be a major boost for badminton.”

Aerobics teacher, Annie Peters -

“The new air-conditioned aerobics/dance studio with its specially sprung floor will be great for all fitness classes, I can’t wait to use it.”

Matt O’Brien, Tae Kwon Do teacher -

” The new multi-purpose hall is ideal for martial arts with its improved flooring and mats.”

The new sports centre facilities have been designed by HOK Sport Architecture in collaboration with Frank Gehry. HOK is recognised as the world’s leading sports architectural practice and is responsible for delivering the Olympic Stadium and other facilities in Sydney, preparation of London’s Olympic bid along with many of the world’s most renowned stadiums and sports facilities.

John Barrow Managing Director of HOK said:

“We were given the most demanding brief - design a sports facility that could accommodate a full range of sports, be used for leisure pursuits as well as serious sport enthusiasts, provide floors that could be raised and lowered in the two main pools to accommodate all potential uses and abilities, include a fitness area, two multi-use sport halls, areas for spectators, café, maximize sea views and work with Frank Gehry to produce a stunning design. We are proud of the fact that we have achieved just that in what will be a centre that will be the envy of other UK cities.”

Karis Holdings

Karis Holdings is a joint venture between ING Real Estate and Karis Developments

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Sports Centre Exploded Plan