Brighton and Hove says YES to Frank Gehry
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.”
