Year: 2016

Liverpool City Council is due to approve the development of a further 190 student bedrooms in Marybone at its planning committee meeting on Tuesday 12 January.

The decision on the scheme at 55-63 Great Crosshall Street by Bridgewater Services was deferred from a planning committee meeting in November to allow for a site visit.

The plot is made up of a grade two-listed former schoolhouse for St John’s Church, and the site of a warehouse which was demolished to make way for an earlier residential scheme which stalled in 2007 when the developer entered administration.

The schoolhouse dates back to the 1860s.

Bridgewater’s proposal is to convert the schoolhouse into flats and build a part five-, six- and eight-storey block to provide 193 student rooms, made up of 31 studios and 29 cluster units, designed by Falconer Chester Hall.

The development is near to a student accommodation scheme of 400 bedrooms currently under construction, also designed by Falconer Chester Hall and being delivered by Watkin Jones Group…

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The developers Gainstar Limited Partnership said the range of three to six-bedroom apartments will include a total of 410 bedrooms and will make a very significant contribution towards alleviating the student accommodation shortage in Cork.

The development will include a student gym, games room, meeting/study rooms, laundry facilities and basement parking for cars and bikes.

The former bottling plant is located near County Hall between City Print and the Topaz filling station. The plant was sold by Coca-Cola in 2005.

A previous planning application was granted permission in 2007 to redevelop the site to accommodate 105 apartments. However that application included the adjacent filling station while this application is confined to the bottling site.

The applicants say the site is perfect for student accommodation given its proximity to UCC and CIT.

The lack of adequate student accommodation has been raised by both colleges and student groups on numerous occasions. The President of UCC Michael Murphy has urged the government to introduce incentivised to developers to build new student apartments to satisfy Ireland’s growing student population.

A planning decision on the Coca-Cola Bottling Site development is due by February 19…

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Plans to create a 24-storey student block in Cardiff city centre have been revealed.

The plans include 463 new student rooms on the site of an alcohol treatment centre in an area behind Chapel 1877 bar and restaurant.

It’s a corner plot bound by Bridge street, Charles Street and Wesley Lane.

The application, which has been submitted by Rio Architects Ltd on behalf of developer Watkin Jones Group, is for a mixed use redevelopment of the area. This includes flexible offices and retail units, as well as the purpose built managed student block and a new alcohol treatment centre to replace the facility currently on the site.

The proposed site is behind Chapel 1877 and incorporates frontage of some of the houses on Charles StreetThe proposed site is behind Chapel 1877 and incorporates frontage of some of the houses on Charles Street
Standing at 24 storeys, the building could be one of many new tall buildings to be proposed in Cardiff in the coming years.

The applications says: Cardiff will undoubtedly see more proposals for taller buildings in the coming years as is true of other cities around the UK which are already a number of years ahead in this respect, and Cardiff is ready also to facilitate taller buildings within its urban framework. The city will benefit from a new vibrancy and richness which can come from well designed tall buildings….

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Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) said on Monday it had agreed to buy a student housing portfolio in the United States for around $1.4 billion, in partnership with Singapore wealth fund GIC and The Scion Group.

The three parties said they had formed a student housing joint venture, Scion Student Communities, which will acquire University House Communities Group (UHC). The price includes the cost of completing current development projects.

CPPIB, which manages Canada’s national pension fund and is a major global dealmaker, last year acquired Liberty Living, one of Britain’s biggest providers of student accommodation, for 1.1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion).

Canadian pension funds are looking to buy real estate assets around the world to diversify their investments and offset the effects of volatility in global equity markets and diminishing returns from fixed income investments.

CPPIB and GIC, which manages Singapore’s foreign investments, will each own a 47.5 percent interest in UHC. Scion, a private operator of student housing, will own the remaining 5 percent. The UHC portfolio is concentrated among top-ranked U.S. universities with large student populations and comprises nearly 13,000 beds, CPPIB said.

CPPIB said the joint venture would pursue additional opportunities to purchase high quality U.S. student housing assets…

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