Linkcity Delivers Commercial Section of The Riverside Development at Canterbury

Linkcity in partnership with Canterbury City Council has successfully delivered the commercial section of The Riverside complex in Kingsmead, Canterbury.

The project, which is the site of the former waste depot, was delivered by Linkcity, and built by construction partner Bouygues UK. It is now ready for the fit-out phase as tenants start to sign their leases and get ready to trade.

Negotiations are well underway on each of the 12 commercial units with legal agreements almost ready to be signed on the overwhelming majority.

It is well known that cinema operator Curzon was the first confirmed tenant of the scheme and they are currently working with their fit-out team to transform the empty shell into a premium 5 screen cinema.

Tom Jackson, Development Director at Linkcity said: “We are delighted to have partnered with Canterbury City Council to successfully deliver this vibrant new destination. The quality of the final product delivered by our construction partner Bouygues UK is outstanding, and I’m really pleased to see the positive impact the project is already having in the area and the local community.”

Leader of Canterbury City Council Cllr Ben Fitter-Harding, as pictured left, said: “I am proud the council decided to invest £23million in bringing this neglected and rundown part of the city to life and am really looking forward to the moment when it will open to the public for the first time later this year and they can see it for themselves.

“There has been significant interest in The Riverside and we are very close to being able to announce the names of our tenants which includes some big brands. It’s great to see so many local and national brands buying into our vision for the development.

“This project delivers the multiscreen cinema the district has been screaming out for, has created jobs and will create many more, will deliver affordable housing, and will generate income for the council through rents, parking revenue and a share of businesses rates which can all be used to pay for and invest in the vital frontline services everyone depends on.”

The student accommodation section is owned within a joint venture between student housing developer Uliving, Linkcity’s dedicated student accommodation brand, and Harrison Street. It is operated by CA Ventures and was completed earlier this year. Their team based on-site are now taking bookings for the 2022/23 academic year.

Social landlord Hyde Housing is making very good progress on the residential part of the scheme which will deliver 189 affordable homes, of which 40% will be available at social rents and the remaining being in shared ownership.

Some work on the roads alongside the site will need to take place in the coming months and engineers are working on plans to minimise any disruption.

During the construction of The Riverside, Linkcity and Bouygues UK have made an enormous amount of effort to engage with the community.

The team has been able to provide more than £7.5 million local economic value and £9,000 worth of social value to the project. This included designing a social value programme tailored especially to the needs of nearby Parkside Community Primary School.

The team’s dedication to providing substantial support to Parkside Primary School during this particularly challenging time for pupils and staff alike lead to Bouygues UK achieving a Highly Commended Certificate at the 2022 Social Value Portal Awards.

Phillippa Prongué has been appointed as the new Managing Director of London-based Developer Linkcity UK. Phillippa brings a wealth of experience, including 15 years’ with Kier Property Development, and will focus on leading the business into further growth and profitability. Her background in JV partnerships, large scale mixed-use regeneration projects, and her experience in operating across all asset classes including industrial, retail, office, residential and student accommodation will be essential in leading the business forward.

Fabienne Viala, Chair of Bouygues UK said, “We are delighted to be welcoming Phillippa into the team. Property Development is a strategic priority for our Group. Her vast experience in the sector will be fundamental as we continue to build on our existing partnerships and look at developing new opportunities.”

On joining Linkcity UK, Phillippa said, “I’m excited to join a team of experienced professionals and take the business forward to offer fully integrated end-to-end solutions for all clients using different forms of contractual, Joint Venture, structured finance and investment structures.”

Linkcity is the property development arm of Bouygues UK, which generates a third of its turnover, through exciting projects across all sectors, including residential, commercial, mixed-use, student accommodation and regeneration schemes.

Linkcity is delighted to have successfully handed over the Fisherton Street scheme to client Westminster City Council.

Designed by architects, Flanagan Lawrence, and delivered by BOUYGUES UK, these family homes for Social Rent play an important role in the wider regeneration of Westminster’s Church Street district. Specifically forming part of the Luton Street & Fisherton Street Regeneration, the three affordable homes are an integral feature to the 171 high-quality homes Linkcity and Westminster Builds are developing together.

These three townhouses have been built within the Fisherton Street Estate conservation area, a post-World War One residential estate delivered through the ‘Homes for Heroes’ initiative in 1924. The homes will be heated using innovative new technology, Air Source Heat Pumps, for both central heating and hot water, making the energy usage as efficient as possible. The regeneration of the area will be accompanied by a landscaped green link between Fisherton Street and Salisbury Street which will connect to the Green Spine planned for the surrounding area. The Green Spine will be a new park and pedestrian-friendly route through the Church Street area. It will link the new Luton Street & Fisherton Street development with Lisson Gardens, Broadley Gardens, and Church Street.

Driven by Leasha Newman, a Solicitor for Linkcity, we are now offering work experience for students on the Law Society’s Diversity Access Scheme. Linkcity is delighted to be working more closely with the Law Society to offer valuable experience to students who might otherwise struggle to gain such opportunities. Having previously been awarded a scholarship for the Scheme, Leasha’s insight has been invaluable. We spoke to Leasha to find out just how crucial this scheme is, what her experience of it was herself, and where it has got her now.

What is the Law Society’s Diversity Access Scheme and why is it so important?

The Diversity Access Scheme is a scholarship programme offered by the Law Society to help aspiring law students from less advantaged backgrounds to pursue a career in law, by providing funding for the Legal Practice Course or Solicitors Qualifying Exam. In addition to the funding, awardees are provided with work experience opportunities and mentoring. The scheme receives hundreds of applications each year, but only 10 scholarships are awarded, so it is a highly competitive process.

The scheme is important because it removes the financial barriers that many students seeking a career in law face. The awardees come from a background which means that they don’t have access to funding from other means (e.g. family or loans), so would face great difficulty in moving forward in their career as student finance is not available for these post-graduate courses which are a requirement for a career in law. This, therefore, means that diversity within the profession can be promoted instead of the stereotypical law student who has come from a wealthy family who already has connections within the profession and access to many opportunities.

What made you want to work with the Law Society?

As a previous awardee of a scholarship from the Scheme, I have seen the benefits first-hand. Whilst the funding is the key component of the scheme, the access to a mentor to help guide you through such a daunting period is equally as valuable. Often the students don’t know others in the profession that they can speak to and get advice from, so having the chance to speak to someone already working as a qualified solicitor is very important. I have volunteered as a mentor to help offer some insight and advice to my current mentee.

Access to good quality work experience is equally vital, as this will give students experience for their CV which will in turn help with training contract applications. I  wanted to give students on the programme the opportunity to gain access to life in an office environment in which they could get some hands-on experience in drafting, joining client meetings to understand how decisions are made, or conducting research that will benefit the business directly. I also felt that it is important for the students to get some exposure to an in-house legal environment, as this is an equally rewarding career path. Often the in-house route is not as talked about in University, but in my experience, the benefits of working directly with your client and being involved in the commercial discussions give you a much better commercial awareness, which feeds into your legal decision making.

How did the Law Society benefit your own career?

As well as providing me with the funding to take the Legal Practice Course, I found that the work experience opportunities were the most beneficial part of the scheme for me. I managed to secure several placements at large in-house organisations, which gave me invaluable insight into this kind of environment, meaning I had an open mind when looking for training contract opportunities. I also managed to secure a vacation scheme at a large private practice law firm, which then lead to me being hired as a paralegal full-time once I finished my studies. Without these opportunities, I believe that it would have taken me longer to secure a paralegal role (and ultimately a training contract) as I had a lack of legal experience on my CV.

Do you enjoy being a mentor?

Being a mentor is something that I often discounted thinking that I am ‘too junior’ to be able to help someone else out. But I have come to realise that I have valuable insights into pursuing a career in law and having come from a similar background to these students, I know I can share my experiences to help my mentee with their career choices. I am really enjoying being a mentor, knowing that I am helping someone and making a difference in their professional life.

What is so special about what Linkcity offers to their interns?

The first thing is having friendly faces around you to welcome you into the team which really helps you settle into what is quite a daunting experience for students. Everyone at Linkcity is approachable and willing to offer their support and advice and talk to students about their individual job roles to give them an insight into the business. The second thing is being involved in good quality work, having been on many work placements myself where you don’t have much involvement or get to do any meaningful work, I know this makes a key difference. Here at Linkcity, we are ensuring that students get a wide variety of experience and is involved in carrying out tasks themselves, with the support of the team.

Where do you see the relationship between Linkcity and the Law Society going in the future?

I hope that we can continue to offer work experience placements to the students on the Diversity Access Scheme for each new year of students. I will continue to offer mentoring support and assist with speaking at events and webinars where possible. Hopefully we can extend this to some of the wider team to raise awareness about the opportunities within the Linkcity legal team.

Bouygues Construction is recognised by the Top Employers Institute for its good practices in HR policy.

Bouygues Construction, a responsible and committed player in sustainable construction, has been recognised and accredited by the Top Employers Institute, an independent international body, as a “Top Employer France” for the sixth consecutive year and a “Top Employer Europe” for the fourth year, with certification also awarded to its entities in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Poland and the Czech Republic.

This “Top Employer” certification rewards the initiatives that Bouygues Construction has undertaken for many years within its organisation to provide its employees with the best possible working environment through innovative HR practices. The Group is the only construction company included in this survey.

The Top Employers Institute programme assessed Bouygues Construction’s HR policy through the “HR Best Practices Survey”, which addresses six major HR areas, broken down into 20 themes such as talent management strategy, the work environment, talent acquisition, training and skills development, well-being, and diversity and inclusion.

Amélie Quidor, HR Director of Bouygues Construction, commented: “We are delighted to have received Top Employer Europe certification once again. This recognition underlines our constant desire to provide better support for our employees and to cultivate team spirit, even in the context of a year so disrupted by the public health crisis in 2021. Beyond the certification, what means most to us is the positive feedback from our employees and their suggestions for going even further, in a spirit of exchange, openness and co-construction. Our employer brand has to be lived and experienced on a daily basis. I am very proud of the teams for their commitment on a daily basis!”

2021 saw two new features that were highlighted by Bouygues Construction:

• A new annual exchange interview scheme, which promotes high quality preparation and richer dialogue.
• The Chance to Meet programme, through which meetings are organised between top management and the talented individuals identified within the company. The younger participants can discover inspiring career paths and benefit from advice, and the top managers can gather ideas from the leaders of tomorrow.

For 2022, two priority themes will be developed and enriched following feedback from the Top Employer survey:

• The attractiveness and richness of our career paths, through a new training offer and better promotion of professional mobility, such as pathways between different businesses.
• The second topic reinforces our Diversity ambition, with the desire to encourage the diversity of backgrounds and cultures within the Group even more strongly, in particular through our gender diversity programmes and through the international profile of our management teams and of the individuals we recruit.

A significant housing project has been announced as the first large-scale project procured through national framework provider Pagabo’s Developer Led Framework.

Southwark Council has selected Linkcity as developer for its Tustin Estate scheme, which will feature nearly 700 new homes. This includes 200 replacement council homes, around 50 shared equity properties, around 220 additional council homes including keyworker homes, and around 220 homes for sale. A Pre-Construction Services Agreement is set to be signed to kick off the process.

The project also includes a central park, several refurbishments of existing council homes and at least 1,800 sqm of commercial floorspace.

Linkcity, part of the Bouygues Construction group, will work with the authority over the coming months with a view to signing a full development agreement in summer 2022 with Bouygues UK as the main contractor for the scheme. Construction will begin late 2022 and is planned to complete in summer 2028.

Pagabo’s £47bn Developer Led Framework was the first framework of its kind when it launched to the market in December 2020, with 29 companies appointed across nine lots to deliver projects across a huge variety of development sectors.

Jonathan Parker, head of construction at Pagabo, said: “I am thrilled to have been involved with the procurement of a developer for the Tustin Estate low rise redevelopment programme, which will provide much needed improvement and expansion of Southwark Council’s existing social housing provision, as well as upgrading the facilities for people in the area.

“The Developer Led Framework was launched as a unique market offering to help procure significant projects that make a huge social difference, and Tustin Estate is exactly that. Having been heavily involved from the outset, we’re really excited to see this project come to fruition over the coming years.”

As part of the framework and procurement process, Pagabo assisted with the procurement advice, development’s business case, early engagement, expression of interest, formulating the invitation to tender, quality scoring and tender moderation, tender summary report, and notification letters.

Cllr Stephanie Cryan, Cabinet Member for Council Homes and Homelessness, said: “We are delighted to welcome Linkcity to the Tustin Estate and look forward to working with them and our residents to build quality new council homes. Southwark has one of the most ambitious council house building programmes in the country and the work on Tustin Estate will not only help us reach our aim of providing new housing but also enhance the estate for current residents.”

As part of the initial phase of development, Linkcity will create around 200 new homes to rehouse current tenants of the estate. In addition, the developer will deliver 440 homes across two further phases over the next three years, through its construction partner Bouygues UK, with at least half of these designated as affordable housing.

Tom Jackson, development director at Linkcity said, “We’re delighted to be working in partnership with Southwark Council and the Tustin Estate residents to deliver the first project on Pagabo’s Developer Led Framework. It’s a great opportunity to provide social and economic value through local employment and education opportunities, as well as new homes for this thriving community.”

For more information about Pagabo please visit www.pagabo.co.uk

We are delighted to announce that the Moulsecoomb East student accommodation campus for the University of Brighton has reached Practical Completion. The keys have now been handed over to our facilities management sister company, Bouygues Energies & Services.

Financed, designed, and developed by Uliving, Linkcity UK’s specialist student accommodation developer, Moulsecoomb East provides over 800 student bedrooms as well as Students’ Union and fitness facilities. The build was completed by Bouygues UK and Bouygues Energies & Services (UK) will maintain, operate, and provide the lifecycle of this facility for 50 years. Uliving partnered with John Laing for the project, with Aviva Investors’ Lime Property Fund providing long-term development finance through an income strip deal.

The entire development has been built to the highest environmental standards with an emphasis on sustainability, and forms part of ‘The Big Build’, a vast transformation project for the University.

Reaching the end of this project is a huge achievement for Bouygues UK and Uliving, who, despite the challenges thrown at them over the last 18 months, managed to deliver the project on time to our university partner, in the face of a global pandemic. We would like to wish Bouygues Energies & Services all the best for their facilities management responsibilities over the next five decades. We look forward to seeing students moving into their new accommodation in the coming weeks.

As the tallest residential block in Bristol nears completion, Linkcity and Bouygues UK welcomed Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, for a visit to the 26-storey tower yesterday. The Mayor learnt more about the building work and received a tour of the impressive building which will soon bring 375 much-needed new homes to the city centre, including 75 affordable homes.

Developed by Linkcity, built by Bouygues UK, designed by Chapman Taylor and with the support of M&G Investments, Homes England, Bristol City Council and Abri (formerly Yarlington Housing Group), construction of Castle Park View will be finished in Spring 2022.The new homes will host a range of sustainable features as part of the council’s plans to build new homes sustainably in central locations.

Marvin Rees, Mayor of Bristol, said: “It’s great to see these homes nearing completion. This is a great example of building the homes we desperately need without putting undue pressure on the environment by making the most of brownfield sites in the city centre, as well as bringing value to the community throughout the build. Recommendations from the recent Citizens’ Assembly included the need to rapidly reduce the impact of our homes on climate change and to make changes to neighbourhoods that make traveling easier, healthier, and better for the environment. Castle Park View supports these ambitions by bringing high quality new homes to Bristol in a sustainable location, with direct access to walking and cycling links and heated by our low-carbon heat network.”

Castle Park View’s design includes numerous sustainability features which contributed to it achieving a level four standard in the Code for Sustainable Homes certification, an environmental assessment method for rating and certifying the performance of new homes. The sustainable design features include nearly 200 photovoltaic roof-mounted solar panels, more than 500 cycle parking spaces, energy efficient light fittings and kitchen appliances, electric charging points at 20% of the car parking spaces, as well as diverting 99.9% of waste generated during the build from landfill.

By making efficient use of a brownfield site near the city centre, Castle Park View will also support sustainable living in Bristol. The site is within walking distance of Bristol Temple Meads station and Bristol Bus and Coach Station, as well as on walking and cycling routes across the city, reducing car traffic within the city centre.

Axel Boutrolle, Managing Director of Linkcity, said: “Linkcity is very proud to be delivering this much needed building for the people of Bristol. Doing so in such a collaborative way on public land has been a challenging but very rewarding and worthwhile experience. The sustainability credentials of this building are second to none, and we have created environmentally friendly, energy efficient and more importantly affordable homes for hundreds of families in this city, a cause which is very close to our hearts. We hope Castle Park View will be the first of many developments in the UK that uses inner city brown field sites to build much needed housing for thriving cities such as Bristol.”

Linkcity is thrilled to announce that Uliving has reached financial close on the third phase of the student accommodation scheme for the University of Essex for £168 million including construction and facility management.

Uliving, student accommodation brand of Linkcity UK in consortium with Equitix has successfully achieved financial close of the 50-year concession for the delivery of 1,262 student bedrooms for the University of Essex. The project known as ‘The Pastures’ is located on the Colchester campus and is the third phase of student accommodation that Uliving will be delivering for the University of Essex, following the handover of Phase 1 (648 new build bedrooms and stock transfer of 772 bedrooms) and Phase 2 (643 bedrooms) in 2013 and 2018 respectively.

Construction of the project will be delivered by Bouygues UK and facilities management services will be carried out by Bouygues Energies & Services, both sister companies of Linkcity UK, and all being entities of Bouygues Construction. Equitix is Uliving equity partner on this scheme funded by £113 million indexed and fixed rate bonds listed on The International Stock Exchange and wrapped by Assured Guaranty.

Construction works are due to start in September 2021 and completion is scheduled for the beginning of the 2023/2024 academic year.

Oliver Campbell, Uliving CEO, said:

“Well designed and well managed accommodation is a key consideration for UK and international students, and we have worked hard with the University of Essex over the last eight years to support their plans for expansion, delivering high quality and affordable living spaces. The Pastures will complement the University’s existing portfolio of student accommodation and we are very pleased to be collaborating with our sister companies Bouygues UK and Bouygues Energies & Services, combining our expertise to maximise the value and innovation we can bring to the scheme.”

Chris Oldham, Director of Estates and Campus Services, University of Essex, said:

“With two phases already delivered, we are delighted to further grow our partnership with Uliving on a third student accommodation project, which will be crucial in meeting the increased demand we are seeing from the growth in student numbers. ‘The Pastures’ will be a fabulous home to our students, with a range of accommodation types to meet a range of needs, and we’re looking forward to seeing work progress.”

Linkcity has been selected as Preferred Bidder by the London Borough of Barnet to develop new homes and community space on the Watling Avenue Car Park site. The new development will bring to Burnt Oak a bespoke Build to Rent scheme of over 300 units, of which 50% will be affordable housing. Linkcity is delighted to be working with the London Borough of Barnet to develop Watling Avenue and help the Council to address the housing need in the borough as well as providing a long-term income stream.

The project will be delivered in partnership with the Council using an income strip deal structure to secure institutional funding. It will incorporate community uses, a public car park, as well as providing enhancements to the landscaped area alongside the Silk Stream. The scheme will be delivered by Linkcity’s sister construction company Bouygues UK, who are expected to start on site next year.

Tom Jackson, Development Director at Linkcity, said: “We are so pleased to have been selected by Barnet for this important project. We are very excited to be partnering with the Council and local stakeholders as we work up our proposals in more detail.”