A new masterplan will be decided at Ealing Council’s Development Committee today. Nine hundred miles further south, at MIPIM, Greystar’s James Pargeter spent the morning outlining its part of the masterplan at the former GlaxoSmithKline site. A six-year vision to deliver a major mixed-use scheme, it will include 2,000 built-to-rent units, plus offices, schools and healthcare facilities.
Ealing Council and the GLA have committed to a planning process of just eight months.
However, it is an area to the east that has caught EG London Residential Research’s eye. North Acton has been the subject of multiple planning applications that will see the area transformed.
The map below shows a number of schemes where construction has already completed, and many more big residential schemes are going through planning.
One of these schemes, with a mixed planning history, is the former Perfume Factory site. It was initially acquired by Essential Living in 2014, and permission was granted for a scheme that looked to bring 534 residential units to the private rented sector, including 132 to be offered at a discount market rent.
Revised plans submitted at the end of 2016 looked to provide a larger number of shorter towers, while retaining the same number of residential units.
The potential for the site caught the attention of Imperial College London, which acquired the southern part of the site with a view to submit plans for a scheme to supply up to 700 rooms for student accommodation. Imperial College has also acquired the 4.5-acre Carphone Warehouse site (Number 7 in the map above).
The site currently has consent for more than 500 residential units, but if Imperial looks to follow the same model for the southern part of the Perfume Factory site, then there is potential for more than 1,000 student rooms.
It is clear to see why Imperial College is keen on North Acton – just two stops and five minutes away on the Central Line, they are building a new University Campus at White City.
If Imperial College’s plans go ahead along with the revised plans from Essential Living, it will see the creation of mixed communities in Ealing with large-scale student developments sitting side-by-side with large PRS schemes offering both market-rate and discount-rent units.
