Cowes
An Appropiate “Preferred Bidder”
The reconstruction of the East Cowes waterfront is about to become a reality – an exciting prospect writes John Roberson
T
here were certainly more widely known names that Sutton Harbour Holdings in the bidding process for what is known as the “Cowes Outer Harbour Project”, and when
it got down to the fi nal three, their opposition – MDL and Premier Marinas – were pretty much household names, while Sutton Harbour are best known in the West Country. However, a look at the broader concept of most of their developments would seem to indicate a good fi t with the needs of bringing Cowes up to standard on a broader base than just building a marina and seawall.
Sutton Harbour’s home, and their show case project is the Sutton Harbour Marina in Plymouth, but their involvement in the local community is considerably greater. A quick look at their involvement in the Plymouth area alone will show a deeper investment in the community.
Creating
Rather than just creating a marina, and collecting the annual rents from the berths, Sutton Harbour Holdings are more of a regeneration organization, their interests in the Plymouth area include a state of the art fi sh market, business developments that house the Department of Works and Pensions, Foot Anstey Solicitors, the National Maritime Aquarium, and a sales offi ce for prestige British boat builder, Princess Yachts. They also own Plymouth City Airport, were a founder shareholder in health care property company ReSound Health, and have recently sold Air Southwest, which operated out of the airport. This range of corporate activity demonstrates a huge involvement and commitment to the local area. Anyone whose involvement with the Fastnet Race goes back more than twenty years, will recall that the area around Sutton Harbour was pretty seedy and run down for many years, but is now a vibrant and lively part of the city. The marina boasts 490 berths, and a
58 cywinter 2011
host of new support facilities and amenities, with the very presence of a marina this size helping to create businesses and jobs. Twenty fi ve years ago, if you fi nished the Fastnet Race, and needed to replace even basic equipment, fi nding a well equipped yacht chandlery involved a very long drive. Even local sailing in anything bigger than a dinghy was sparse. Now the yacht and sailing clubs of Plymouth Sound have strong keelboats fl eets, with a growing local offshore circuit. The marina is also adjacent to the Barbican area of
town, once a run-down collection of old buildings and narrow streets, now a lively precinct with cafes, restaurants and shops, still in the same old building and narrow streets, but better described as quaint and rejuvenated.
Other projects currently being undertaken by Sutton Harbour Holdings, which further demonstrate their regenerations skills, and sympathy to existing structures include Castle Court in Portland and the Exeter Canal Basin. Both projects are being done in partnership with the local council.
Castle Court is a mixed use development on the site of the former HMS Osprey, right next door to the venue
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