Ocon wins £6.45m student living scheme in Nottingham

Designed by architects Lewis & Hickey, the scheme, located on Russell Street, mid way between Nottingham University and the University of Nottingham in a speculative development by CATSUP Ltd. The project follows the completion of the 1,090 unit student accommodation at Chettles Yard in Nottingham earlier this year.

A fast track build scheduled to take just 56 weeks, the project will be handed over next summer in time for the beginning of the 2012/2013 academic year.  Constructed in two four-storey blocks – one L-shaped and one rectangular – the scheme will be of lightweight steel frame construction with pre-fabricated brick panel cladding to remove the need for scaffolding and speed up the build without compromising on quality.  The 210 units will provide a mix of studio apartments and en-suite study bedrooms arranged in 4, 5 and six room clusters each with their own kitchen/living/dining space.

Constructed on a brownfield, former light industrial site the scheme will also include a reception area, common room and laundry with limited car parking and ample external secure bicycle storage.  Ocon will also be responsible for a new access road onto the scheme and provision of services to the development.

Comments Raj Shah on behalf of CATSUP Ltd: “This is a speculative development so we need to ensure that it is ready in plenty of time for the new student intake and that it will be of a quality standard that will appeal to students from both of Nottingham’s universities.  Having already worked with Ocon, we were confident that they had the expertise to deliver to those criteria and their experience of the sector and of Nottingham has already proved an immense help in securing planning for the development.”

Ocon’s project manager, Nigel Athorne adds: “This scheme is indicative of the solutions-driven approach we take to working with the other delivery partners to enable a scheme progress from site acquisition to completed building.  We will be using the same team as we recently used on our successful Chettles Yard project and look forward to a similar positive outcome.”

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