Developer selected for central Reading regeneration
The council want to breathe new life into the area around the Hexagon
A developer that will build more than 600 flats in Reading’s town centre has been chosen.
Reading Borough Council had been seeking to transform its former Civic Centre site to create a ‘destination area’ for living, eating and entertainment.
The area, which is to the rear of Broad Street Mall, has been quiet since the civic centre building was demolished in 2016. Now it is characterised by concrete open space leading to the Magistrates Court and the Lavender Community Gardens.
The council administration has a project to regenerate the area into the ‘Minster Quarter’ which will be made up of more than 600 flats, be a net zero carbon development, and link up to destinations such as the Blue Collar Corner and the mall.
Of the 618 flats envisaged, 30 per cent would be designated affordable housing, amounting to 185 apartments.
Now, a developer has been selected to make the council’s Minster Quarter project a reality.
In a meeting, Karen Rowland (Labour, Abbey) lead councillor for environmental services and community safety said the project would ‘knit back the civic heart of Reading’.
The scheme was also welcomed by cllr Simon Robinson (Conservative, Emmer Green), who said: “If you walk around that area at night it’s not good, so I think anything that brings that area up in the world and regenerates that part of Reading is all for the good.”
Liz Terry (Labour, Southcote), the deputy council leader, said: “That area needs the regeneration, we need to seize the opportunity that this long and robust process has presented to us.”