Greenwich Ikea car park to see 1,200 homes built above?
Reports have emerged of plans to potentially build 1,200 homes above a large car located beside Ikea, B&Q and the Odeon in Greenwich.
EG report talks are ongoing between Singaporean landowner Weybourne Holdings and developer London Square to build homes above the existing car park. According to the article, the car park will remain as “the council has identified the car park as valuable for the borough”.
1,200 homes would go a long way to meeting the borough’s annual housing target of 3,000 and provide income to assist the implementation of transport schemes such as a Bus Transit system.
The article also highlights that whilst most urban development projects seek to replace or limit large-scale car parking, Greenwich have now aligned themselves closely to car oriented retail sheds and so retaining parking spaces is seen as essential to keep companies such as Ikea.
Of course it does mean that down the line those big single storey sheds would make far more sense as mixed-use developments with homes above. Well, it made sense to do that when Ikea was approved, and even more if this plan proceeds. That would give the “sustainable” Ikea building a shelf life about as long as the “eco” Sainsbury’s that proceeded it.
Greenwich Peninsula will still retain acres of tarmac despite this plan – as will Charlton.
It is likely that consultations will emerge in coming months.
Developer London Square are behind other projects in the area. They recently gained approval to demolish Greenwich police station for a block of flats. Click here to read about that plan.
They also plan 141 homes in Lewisham – as covered here.
I guess there won’t be any residents’ parking and will this lead to parking charges?
Parking charges are sure to be added and I could see a scheme with short term car parking are allowed say up to 2-3 hours parking for example.
They new homes would be very much welcomed as more homes are desperately needed.
However, Ithink IKEA, B&Q and the Oden Cinema will suffer from loss of business during construction if this development gets the go ahead,
Mixed retail/housing developments have proven to be successful in other areas.
There is plenty of housing for those who can afford the market rates. What is desparately needed is affordable housing to enable those on the council waiting list somewhere to live.
They should have done this with all the recent developments – brottlebank, ikea, the extension to bugsby way shops etc. Lets hope it actually happens!
Not sure how much sense does this make , there is so much void land in the area that feels more appropriate to build over compared to Ikea car park !