Ashford Commercial Quarter

Ashford Commercial Quarter regeneration was brought forward by a partnership between Ashford’s Future Partnership and SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) as part of the wider regeneration opportunities for the Ashford town centre. The brief was to deliver a major mixed-use scheme in Ashford town centre believing that the provision of commercial space and residential accommodation supported by retail and leisure uses is critical to facilitate and sustain the creation of new jobs and future sustainable growth.

It was critical that the vision, and pathway to that vision, addressed the requirements of recent planning policy, was commercially viable without reliance on further public funding and understood the historic, physical, social, economic and policy context.

Once this vision incorporating approximately 1 million sqft of commercially led accommodation was documented, development options were presented to the various stakeholders allowing a fine-tuning process that gave assurance that the final outcome would meet the vision and long-term aspirations for Ashford to be a ‘leading business centre’ just 37 minutes from the city of London.