United House has been instructed on behalf of NHP Leisure Developments to manage the development, which will include housing and a hotel. It is due to be completed in spring 2013.
The development includes plans for 136 residential units, which includes 80 private apartments. Of the 136 residential units, 56 are proposed to be made available for affordable rent. The affordable homes would be managed by the national affordable housing provider Affinity Sutton.
Plans also include a 150-bedroom hotel, which would include meeting rooms, banqueting facilities and a conference centre, the developer said.
The first phase of the project will include the encapsulation of a UK Power Networks substation within a steel-lined concrete ‘box’ approximately 200 metres long, 38 metres wide and four storeys high, the developers said.
“It is wonderful to see the construction work on Kingston Heights under way at last," said Mike Spenser-Morris, Managing Director of NHP Leisure Developments. "Having first acquired the site in 1999, our team has been working tirelessly with Kingston Council to deliver possibly the most important development in the regeneration of this part of Kingston town centre."
Kingston Heights is planned to be an "eco-friendly" development and will benefit from a district heating system that will provide all the heating, cooling and hot water requirements for the development, the developer said.
Paul Brookes Architects and KDS & Associates Ltd have been appointed as Project Delivery Architects on the scheme.
