Phase Two of the Royal Sands development on Ramsgate seafront is underway with around half of the first phase apartments already secured by buyers.
Thanet-based Blueberry Homes is creating 106 luxury 1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments, each with underground parking, a 60-bed hotel and gym and leisure and retail units. There are also plans for an upmarket spa franchise at the site.
The first phase of the build, at the Ramsgate Tunnels end of the site, consists of the 26 apartments with the planned hotel at the Wetherspoon end of the plot being in the last phase.
Retail units, taking up some 16,000 square foot, will be built alongside each phase with larger units at the hotel end of the site.
Blueberry Homes started work on the long-awaited Royal Sands in June and has an estimated three-year completion time.
The first phase of development should be ready for residents to move in by next Spring, say the team behind the construction. Prices for the first phase apartments range from £275,000 to £750,000.
The company, which has worked on developments across Thanet for some 30 years, is using local trade and has consecutive Blueberry builds at the Boundary Road former gasworks site and Margate’s Dane Road.
The plot has been empty since a fire in 1998 devastated the former funfair on the land.
A recent report by www.propertymarket-index.com rates Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate as the top destinations for buyers wanting to move out of London. Ratings were based on travel time into London, value for money, price growth forecasts, culture and heritage, cleanliness, and beaches, as well as education.
Blueberry Homes spokesman Scott Rigden said: “We are very proud of our local roots and our track record with regeneration of brownfield sites. We are also currently regenerating the old gasworks in Ramsgate and Margate for entry level housing and have more sites coming on stream for 2021.”
“There has been so much support for Blueberry Homes developments in Thanet this year and we are committed to local sustainability and regeneration. We would like to thank the local community, our staff and partners for giving us so much support and encouragement and we look forward to building an even brighter future into 2021 and beyond.”
Local “roots” perhaps?
Good to see the site being built. Nice for locals to be able to buy one of the 106 appartments at long last.
Do you think locals will be able to afford those prices,on Thanet wages?
Philip,do you think many locals will be able to afford those prices?
I mean it is nice that something is finally being done there but it looks very carbuncley
It is a carbuncle. It will eclipse the view of the actual beach from the prom. We still have to pay for the maintenance of the cliff face. The tightwad TDC negotiators didn’t even manage to negotiate a security door for the HMS Fervent Tunnels. The ordinary citizens of Ramsgate are being excluded from having a proper leisure experience on Ramsgate Sands. Where are our beach huts? It has been a spiteful act against TDC for not giving Godden the previous owner planning permission for his buy and burn site. Twenty years of land-banking at the expense of the good fortune of Ramsgate Town. It was made clear by people who knew the property market that building it sooner would have seen it empty and only now the flood defences have been installed has it become viable. That and apparently the rush of Londoner’s to buy in Ramsgate as referred to in Kathy’s story.
Excluded?
Flood defences?
I don’t see how these new flats can exclude “ordinary citizens of Ramsgate” from “having a proper leisure experience on Ramsgate Sands”. (I’ve never thought of going for a swim in those terms!)
Such a shame that this was allowed. It is a monster of a building, insensitive the the surrounding historical context and dated before it is even finished. It will
be even worse when it sits empty. I know people were tired of looking at the empty site but Ramsgate could have done so much better. I wish they would stop building now and make a public park on the remaining land.
Did the developers take into consideration in their “Price Growth Forecasts” that cargo aircraft, 2 or more an hour will fly close by, over Weatherspoons, and Ramsgate Harbour at less than 300 meters high should Manston reopen I wonder?
Awful but better than a derelict building site. I would rather they were building almost anything else, but its still better than nothing.
I see the knockers are on their high horse again. This could be the best thing that has happened to Ramsgate for a very long time. I think the development has a very modern, continental look and will attract visitors to one of the most beautiful towns in the south east.
It appears from the comments on here that some people would rather continue to walk past wooden boards on the sea front concealing a long-abandoned building site which was an eyesore from the top of the cliff. The shops, cafés and bars along the beach front can be used by everyone and I hope it will attract more visitors who will help to boost the local economy. The flats above do not strike me as being overpriced. Remember they are luxury flats with extensive sea views. That comes at a premium. Check out prices in Dorset and Devon.
Over the last 10 years or so, a huge amount of money and effort has gone into regenerating Margate. I hope that this can be the start of something great for Ramsgate. If we can get a ferry service up and running again, now more viable as they will be able to sell duty free goods again, Ramsgate will be the place to go in Kent.
My message to the knockers is wait about 5 years and see if your opinion is the same.
Rabbie,I think that most of the comments are favourable to the development,rather than knocking it,as you claim.
I agree that it is far more preferable than a boarded up derelict piece of land,which it has been for so long.
Peter. Thank you for your reply. I didn’t mean to imply that there were more negative comments than positive ones and I wasn’t critisizing the “knockers’ for having an opinion either. Everyone will have different views and opinions to which they are entitled. For all we know they might be right. We won’t really know for about 5 years or so.
I too like the look of it. But have the builders really used the same pilings that have been at the site for 14 years? It would be nice to have a small public park at the town end of the site rather than the hotel currently proposed, though.