A £1bn association between Knight Dragon, TfL and the GLA will guide the £8.4bn redevelopment of Greenwich Peninsula, SE10.
The trio have unveiled plans for a 1.4m sq ft triple-towered development over North Greenwich station.
Knight Dragon, fronted by Sammy Lee and Richard Margree and backed with private money from Hong Kong, received outline planning permission for a 15,720-home masterplan in September 2015.
The masterplan included an option for the redevelopment of North Greenwich station, but the land was not formally included in Knight Dragon’s holdings. However, under the new tie up, TfL and the GLA will essentially donate the land, while Knight Dragon will build out the Santiago Calatrava-designed scheme.
Deputy mayor for housing James Murray said the scheme was now in a position to deliver at speed and scale.
“I think it’s a huge boost of confidence and a re-affirmation of London’s position as a city that is leading the world,” he said.
Richard Margree, chief executive of Knight Dragon, said that despite the referendum, the developer has no intention of changing its vision of the project, and it was important that the scheme was not dumbed down.
He reaffirmed that Knight Dragon would be developing all the units alone, and that although he had had “plenty of phone calls” regarding PRS blocks, it was “not currently on our agenda”.
LISTEN: Deputy mayor for housing James Murray explains what is behind the GLA and TfL’s agreement with Knight Dragon
The development, which will be a mixture of shops, offices and residential, will include 800 homes, 200 of which will be affordable.
“It’s a question of increasing affordable housing across the board, but also making great advantage of schemes like this which are going to build a large number of homes at pace,” said Murray.
He said the GLA had inherited existing planning permissions of around 25% affordable housing across the scheme, but that there were review mechanisms in place to increase that.
“The planning permission in outline on the peninsula more generally is 25% but with a mechanism to have that reviewed up towards to 35%. So we will be working closely with everyone involved over the coming years to get it up to that 35% or higher.”
By the end 2018, 2,500 homes will have been completed.
WATCH: Knight Dragon chief executive Richard Margree explains what’s happening at Greenwich Peninsula
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