Green developer BioRegional Quintain to be wound up

The UK’s most high profile sustainable developer, BioRegional Quintain, is to be wound up. The move comes as listed parent company Quintain pulls in its horns to focus on the London market.

BioRegional Quintain will finish the 80-home first phase of the 750-home, low-carbon Middlehaven development in Middlesbrough, and then wind up. The firm was set up in 2005 as a joint venture of BioRegional, the influential environmental charity behind the One Planet Living initiative, and listed property developer Quintain.

Pete Halsall, chief executive of BioRegional Quintain, said: “It is extremely sad, but it is part of a wider decision of Quintain’s board to focus on its core business. My understanding is that Quintain wants to be able to express sustainability in its developments in a different way.”

Halsall confirmed the venture will shut, losing five staff. The move will leave the Homes and Communities Agency’s £200m Middlehaven scheme, masterplanned by architect Will Alsop, without a residential developer for its later phases.

It will also withdraw from the London Development Agency’s One Gallions project, a 260-home, low-carbon exemplar development in the East End of London, which BioRegional Quintain won the right to develop in 2007 alongside Crest Nicholson and Southern Housing Group.

At its peak before the downturn, BioRegional had a £350m development pipeline across six sites. Its most successful scheme was the award-winning 172-home One Brighton joint venture with Crest Nicholson, which completed last year, and includes allotment spaces on the roof for residents to grow their own food.

Halsall, who will leave the business, said the move did not mean the kind of development promoted by the firm was a thing of the past, adding that he would shortly announce a new venture dedicated to “deep green” developments.