Port Marine, Portishead

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In developing large scale projects in areas of low demand, Crest Nicholson have recognised the necessity of creating a "sense of place" through strong design concepts from the earliest stage of development in order to raise confidence in the project and long term value to both the developers and those people who are going to live there.

At Port Marine, Crest Nicholson, have converted a disused contaminated power station site into a mixed-use, mixed tenure development, providing 3420 homes, 69,680m2 of employment and 60,390m2 of retail space when complete.

A hierarchy of streets, character areas, public, private and semi-private space, extensive hard and soft landscaping, public art works and varying building types have helped create ‘location’ in an otherwise low value site.

Stephen Stone, Chief executive of Crest Nicholson explained that they as developers commonly invest 10 – 20% more in build costs than other developers, and that their build cost is commonly 50% of the sales price.

Crest Nicholson offset costs by increasing density. Planners support increased density based on the quality proposed. Crest Nicholson believe that they can generate a 15 – 20% increase in open market sales value because want to buy into a good environment. This approach was found to work best on medium to large sites due to an increased opportunity to create location.

Crest Nicholson is committed to using external architects and producing bespoke schemes.

Creating places brings value, both in terms of financial return and in building a positive reputation as a developer synonymous with quality. “It is important to get the right mix of properties within each phase to help speed of sales. Good design can sell property off plan. Rate of sale is as important as £ profit because the turnover is quicker – something that is often overlooked“, Stephen Stone sums it up.

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Port Marine, Portishead.