Revitalising Sunderland with quality housing and education

Nov 16 2007 By The Journal

GENTOO is a people and property business that exists solely to generate and deliver enduring opportunities and solutions.

With a vision that encompasses more than property alone, Gentoo aims to have a tangible, positive effect on the way people and communities live, develop and improve.

Gentoo believes in mixing quality housing with job opportunities, excellent education and health facilities, and all within environments that people want to live in. Historically, Pennywell is an area facing multiple social and economic challenges and in May of this year, Gentoo began their £60m regeneration of the area.

The building of 600 new homes by Gentoo Construction is under way, 326 for rent and 287 to buy. The overall master plan is expected to be finished in February 2014. The Gentoo Homes range will include two-bedroom apartments, bungalows and starter homes, to large family homes built in a variety of styles.

Phase 1 of the new development is to be named Hartley Wood, after James Hartley, a prominent glassmaker in Sunderland. After consultation events at nearby schools, one pupil, Nikita Jobling from Pennywell School, came up with the idea of naming the development after a glass theme because of Sunderland’s traditional glass-making history.

Like all of the Gentoo Homes schemes across the City of Sunderland that have been sold and rented to date, these new homes will be at the forefront of housing development in terms of style and size. Some of the new homes will have garages, some will have private car parking spaces, and all will have private gardens. The homes form part of the highly popular Gentoo Homes portfolio of homes, all of which are affordable, modern and spacious.

The new estate will also be the first designated Homezone area in Sunderland – with a child-friendly, tree-lined avenue and areas of high-quality open space that will provide safe pedestrian and cycle routes through the development.

This regeneration work will be complemented by the new £25m City Academy that is to be built on the site. The new academy in Pennywell, bringing together Pennywell School and Quarry View Primary School, is now well under way, with the all important funding agreements signed last month.

Schools minister Lord Adonis gave the green light to Gentoo’s plans, which will see the academy open in the existing school buildings in September 2008 before the new state-of-the-art facilities are completed in 2009.

The academy, which aims to achieve special status in business and enterprise through innovation, will be open to pupils aged four to 16 and is sponsored by Gentoo and Sunderland City Council along with a significant personal contribution from ex-SAFC chairman, Bob Murray.

Gentoo are delighted to announce that Paul Prest will be the new chief executive of the academy. Paul will be taking up his post in January.

Paul has a vast amount of experience in this field and is currently head of a primary school in Doncaster, his third headship. He has also worked at a strategic level across both the primary and secondary sector in a major project in Leeds to improve educational achievement. This experience, together with his ideas and enthusiasm, will now be put to great use in the new academy.

He said: “I am very excited about what we can achieve with the academy. The Gentoo staff I have met have been fantastic with their enthusiasm and support for how we are going to transform educational achievement in this local community.”

Gentoo Group chief executive Peter Walls added: “We are absolutely delighted to appoint Paul as the chief executive for the academy. We look forward to working closely with him to develop this fantastic resource for the local community.”

The £25m academy building includes a Learning to Grow section that will be the home base for the younger students and a Learning to Learn section that will be the base for those aged between 10 and 13 years. There will also be a theatre in the round including a recording studio, a life skills centre, sports hall and gym, arts centre and cybercafé plus a state of the art innovation centre.

Pat Havord, head of corporate planning at Gentoo said: “This will be a wonderful building and a tremendous resource for the local community. It will be a symbol of everything Gentoo stands for – investment in people and property.”

Gentoo recognises the importance of the environment around the new homes they are building and are working very closely with the local community, businesses and schools to ensure that the new development and the academy will fulfil everyone’s requirements.

The social investment and enterprise arm of the Gentoo Group, Gentoo Living, will be ensuring Gentoo are not just building homes but building communities, by delivering a wide range of responsive programmes in the area and ensuring every penny spent has wider social and economic benefits.

For further information on Gentoo and the new academy, call (0191) 525-5000 or visit www.gentoogroup.com