West London Business Property Lunch with Quintain at the Holiday Inn, Wembley
NovaLoca attended the West London Business Property Lunch last Friday, led by Ben Giddens the Development Director of Quintain. The lunch focussed on updates of the impressive Wembley Park Development. Quintain last reported on the development three years ago and last Friday they provided a considerable amount of information regarding completed and future plans.
Hosted at the Holiday Inn, Wembley we were within walking distance of the development we had come to learn about. On arrival, we enjoyed drinks and networking with business owners, agents and developers.
Through speaking with various people in the room, NovaLoca found that most people were very interested in the development and wanted to be kept up to date with what was happening. We spoke with Martin Barrow of GVA who was there for an update of the development and also spoke with Zac Forest of Dutch and Dutch, who deals with purely North West London, and was interested to see how Wembley will be regenerated.
Very interestingly, we were sat next to Kirk Nelson, a landscape architect and urban designer, who worked on stages of the master plan with Quintain. He talked to NovaLoca about his involvement in the scheme and told us that what he really wanted was to see “a park be put back into Wembley Park.”
After drinks and a lovely three course meal, including salmon, roast beef and chocolate mousse, we settled to listen to Ben Giddens presentation on the Wembley Park Development.
An obvious ambition for Quintain is to “change the perception of Wembley”. Giddens talked us through the impressive developments so far including the Wembley Arena refurbishment in 2007, the opening of the Hilton in 2012 in time for the Olympics, the £90m civic centre in Brent which stands in the shadow of Wembley Stadium, the huge London Designer Outlet which opened in October 2013 and much more.
Future development plans for Quintain include “Emerald Garden” which is to include 475 new apartments, “Alto” which is to include 370 new homes and “South West Lands” with planning submitted for 850 units.
NovaLoca were most excited by the opening of Wembley Theatre in October 2016. The theatre will show the world’s first theatre production of Hunger Games and will involve a “revolving drum” which will open up to a static stage with moving chairs which can spin around to new stage areas.
We were also very taken with the plans for a new 7 acre public-park which will boast two multi-use games areas and a lake to bring an array of wildlife and plants. There will be clear routes through for pedestrians and cyclists and this will be a safe and accessible public space for all.
Ben Giddens ended the presentation by stating “We are very excited about the changes in Wembley.” If you have any comments on the Wembley Park development, please leave them below.
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