Irish firm wins £116m Cambridge resi job

Irish contractor Bennett Construction has won a £116m job to build a housing development in Cambridge, its largest in the UK.

The €290m (£253m)-turnover firm, which is based in Mullingar, County Westmeath, has been appointed to build 373 homes at the Eddington development close to Cambridge city centre.

The scheme, awarded by developer Present Made and its funding partners Nuveen and Apache Capital, will occupy two plots on the wider 150ha site.

Eddington is a University of Cambridge site and was given outline permission for 3,000 homes and 100,000 sq m of workspace in 2013.

Present Made submitted a detailed application for two plots on the site in August 2021 and was granted approval by Cambridge council in October last year.

The scheme was designed by Jo Cowen Architects with the project team also including planning consultant Bidwells, structural engineer Robert Bird, transport consultant Stantec, energy consultant Hurley Palmer Flatt and landscape architect Churchman Thornhill Finch.

The development will also include a communal pavilion, a gym, yoga studio, private dining room, cafe, games room, cinema and a co-working space.

Bennett, which has 200 staff, including 50 in the UK, is due to start on site later this month and complete the scheme in 2025.

The firm’s current jobs include a hotel next to the Oval cricket ground in south London while elsewhere in the capital it has an ongoing contract for work at the Greenwich Millennium Village where it has built close to 700 units.

Meanwhile, Northern Irish contractor McAleer & Rushe has been appointed by Fusion Group to build a 420-home student accommodation block in Liverpool.

The seven-storey scheme will replace the site’s vacant Hondo supermarket on the city’s Upper Duke Street, opposite the city’s cathedral.