Neptune submits plans for Olympic legacy zone development

Neptune Group, the London-based property investment agency, has submitted a planning application to develop 11,000 sq m of commercial space as part of its £165m redevelopment of Neptune Wharf in the Olympic legacy zone.

The application for the development – currently the largest private venture planned in the Olympic legacy zone – includes requests for permission to build a multi-use site, with up to 800 new homes, a new primary school and over a hectare of open spaces.

Architects Stock Woolstencroft have been tasked with implementing designs for the project on Fish Island, to the west of the Olympic stadium site and outside the parameters of the Legacy Communities schemes.

Neptune, who hope to receive planning permission in early 2013, bought the site in 2004 in order to sidestep compulsory purchase orders relating to the Olympic redevelopments, and have lobbied for investment in local regeneration since 2005.

Patrick Heffron, director of the Neptune Group, said: “We committed to Fish Island well ahead of the 2005 Olympic announcement, and we are delighted that after several years of detailed discussions with the various planning agencies we now have a policy platform and agreed framework under which the Neptune Wharf scheme can come forward.

“We now expect to see many more privately driven proposals come forward in this exciting Olympic fringe area.”

The island – once home to Channel 4’s Big Breakfast house – is bordered by the River Lea, Hertford Union Canal and East Cross Route and has long been touted as a potential area for renovation.

An old industrial centre, Fish Island began attracting businesses in 2009 as a result of displacement from the main Olympic site, with authorities promising investment to improve public spaces and transport links towards the City and Canary Wharf.

Neptune has already worked towards the redevelopment of the area alongside a number of planning authorities, including Tower Hamlets Borough Council, the London Thames Gateway development Corporation, the Olympic Delivery Authority, the Greater London authority and the LLDC.