Regeneration specialist Lovell has been selected by the Tirion Group to redevelop an old Cardiff paper mill site into an estate of 800 homes.
The £100m new urban village at the 53-acre former Arjo Wiggins Paper Mill site, in Canton, to the west of the city centre, is one of Wales’ largest urban regeneration programmes.
The paper mill that used to stand on the site, before it was demolished, dated back to the early 1870s. It closed in 1999 when it was bought by the Welsh Development Agency. The site has been empty and undeveloped for more than a decade but has been fully remediated.
The developer, Tirion, is a not-for-profit organisation, initially created through a partnership between Welsh government and Principality Building Society.
Lovell will build a mix of houses and apartments in a riverside setting. The development will be called The Mill.
The first phase will create 358 homes for open market sale by Lovell and 102 homes for Tirion that will be for discounted rent, open market rent and social rent. An additional 340 homes for Tirion will be built in further phases of the scheme as well as a neighbourhood centre with shopping and community facilities.
Tirion Group chief executive David Ward said: “This is a ground-breaking project which promises to be a blueprint for similar high-quality communities across the country.”
Lovell managing director Stewart Davenport added: “This major regeneration programme will bring new life to one of Cardiff’s biggest brownfield sites creating urgently-needed quality homes in a sought-after location close to the city centre.
As part of the project, Lovell plans to work with the Construction Industry Training Board to establish a Cardiff-based National Skills Academy programme which will deliver apprenticeships and training placements for local people through The Mill scheme.
Work began in December 2015 on the creation of the infrastructure for the development. Construction of the new homes will begin in autumn 2016 with the first 102 homes for Tirion set to be completed by the end of 2017 and the development of 358 homes for sale set to be finished in 2022.
