Shoreditch Exchange, Hackney
Providing affordable workspace for local businesses
Regal London was appointed by a family that owned 70% of a site that comprised part of a potential wider regeneration opportunity. The site had been used as a picture framing factory for over 40 years. The objective was to acquire the adjacent land parcels that were held in two separate ownerships with a view to completing the urban block and creating the optimum site to deliver a transformative placemaking scheme.
Regal London was successful in bringing together the full potential of the scheme, unlocking over 10 years of unsuccessful negotiations between the respective landowners and a number of other developers.
Following the site assembly stage, Regal London then executed its planning strategy, successfully addressing a number of key challenges arising in respect of the site’s existing employment designations and a challenging local context of heritage and townscape constraints, involving detailed discussions with London Borough of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Historic England and the Greater London Authority.
Planning permission was granted for a development comprising 184 residential units, 13,334 sqm of employment floorspace, 4,234 sqm of flexible commercial and retail space, along with associated landscaping and public realm improvements. The scheme provides for 51 x 1 bed, 75 x 2 bed and 58 x 3 bed homes. The scheme also secures the provision of 1,620 sqm of affordable workspace which was an important consideration from a viability perspective to off-set the requirement to provide affordable housing.
Construction commenced in Summer 2017 and is due to complete in Autumn 2020. The first phase of the development opens in early 2020 when WeWork occupies 13,285 sqm of the commercial space.