// Construction starts on the new Sainsbury’s and St George development in Hendon, north west London
// It involves a new 43,000sq ft Sainsbury’s flagship store, 1309 new homes, a 1.5-acre public park,10,000sq ft of commercial space
// Building programme expected to support over 500 jobs over 10 years
Construction has commenced on the new Sainsbury’s and St George development in Hendon, which is expected to support over 500 jobs during the total 10-year programme.
The Silk Park development in north west London involves a new 43,000sq ft Sainsbury’s flagship store with undercover parking for over 250 customers, 1309 new homes, and a 1.5-acre public park.
The partnership will also deliver 10,000sq ft of flexible commercial space for cafés, restaurants, office space or a gym.
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Creating a new green corridor for Hendon, the historic Silk Stream will be opened up to deliver a biodiversity net gain for existing and future residents.
Pedestrians will also benefit from wider footpaths and landscaping on Edgware Road.
Over the past six months enabling work has taken place to prepare the site for the major development, including creating a new access road, installing a new decked car park, demolition of the petrol filling station and extensive drainage diversion works.
The existing Sainsbury’s store has remained open to customers, with minor alterations including changes to the store layout and new pedestrian entrance and exit.
“This partnership gives us a once-in-a-generation opportunity to play our part and work with the Hendon community to ensure it thrives,” Sainsbury’s property director Patrick Dunne said.
“We’re proud of investing in the local area to deliver parks and green space, more housing and amenities.
“This new development is supporting new and ongoing jobs, and will give our customers and colleagues a new and modern flagship store.
“We have an ambitious property agenda and continue to partner with developers to regenerate local communities and invest in state-of-the-art stores to best serve our customers.
“Our mixed use development plans set communities up for the future, and mean we can extract value to reinvest into our business. We’re proud of our over 150 year history, and we’re investing to ensure we’re well-placed to deliver for generations to come.
“Our current Hendon supermarket will continue to serve customers right up until we open the doors to our new store, and we’re committed to minimising disruption to customers, colleagues and the wider community.”
Since 2009, Sainsbury’s has been redeveloping sites of existing stores into mixed use schemes to create new homes and regenerate local communities.
The Big 4 grocer said that almost 2000 homes have been delivered in recent years, including at Nine Elms and Fulham, with future plans for up to 7000 more homes across London.
Sainsbury’s has had a store in Hendon for over 25 years and currently employs over 1000 people in the Barnet Borough.
St George is a member of the Berkeley Group, which regenerates brownfield land for communities to use.
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