U+I wins masterplanner status at Cambridge development

Specialist regeneration developer and investor U+I has been appointed as masterplanner and promoter to transform the current water recycling centre in north Cambridge into a major residential-led mixed-use urban quarter, it said on Monday.

The London-listed firm said its appointment followed a competitive procurement process by landowners Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council.

Working with its development partner TOWN and a design team led by Wolfson prize winners Urbed, U+I said its role would be to prepare a masterplan and design code, secure planning permission, deliver enabling infrastructure and sell development-ready land parcels to third parties, delivering a “transformational project” for Cambridge.

The 120-acre site, part of the wider Cambridge Northern Fringe East which also included a golf driving range owned by the city council, would be redeveloped into at least 5,200 homes and one million square feet of office space.

It would include a mix of retail, community and leisure space - providing north Cambridge with an exceptional new neighbourhood that U+I said would further strengthen the city's strong economy and superb quality of life.

Regeneration was expected to take 10-15 years to complete, and the first profits from sales of land were expected to be realised after an initial three to four year planning and enabling development phase.

U+I said its initial expectation was that the £3.5bn project would deliver between £20m and £30m of development and trading gains over its lifespan.

The first stage would involve the preparation of a business plan to secure £193m of funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to relocate the current water recycling centre and remediate the site, without which the project could not proceed.

U+I said the project was shortlisted for funding by Homes England earlier in 2018.

“We are hugely excited to have the opportunity to work with Anglian Water and Cambridge City Council on this prestigious site, which deepens our pipeline of PPP projects in the London City Region where we are focused, alongside Manchester and Dublin,” said chief executive Matthew Weiner.

“This is a further milestone for U+I as this was one of two major partnership projects we announced we had been shortlisted for at our full year results.”

Weiner said the win provided “further evidence” of the firm’s ability to be selected for large, complex and valuable regeneration projects.

"We see enormous potential in the site, and our passion for placemaking will help us to transform this quarter of Cambridge into a vibrant place, providing much-needed housing to this currently undersupplied market.”