Redevelopment of Fann St

An update on the redevelopment of the Fann St. YMCA building by Redrow presented at the Bunyan AGM.  Notes from a meeting with Redrow:

• All planning except external landscaping now agreed;
• 74 homes, called Blake Tower (City didn't like Blackstone), with the marketing suite under Bunyan and a soft launch for Barbican residents only in about a month or so. Design elements by Conran Architects;
• Start on site at the end of April, with construction likely to last 18 months. Asbestos removal will be done prior to that but I get the sense they're still trying to work out how to use the Bunyan yard whilst Beech Gardens remains in full swing;
• The first phases will be the noisiest as they crunch through concrete, but they've built in a number of sound, dust and disturbance limitation measures. They seem genuinely keen to get this bit right with all kinds of acoustic dampeners, monitors, building wrapped in monocled then a second layer, tools that deliberately minimise noise etc etc being put in place. There'll be a resident liaison person on site, a 24 hr noise line etc etc too;
• we 're going to be a bit pushy and ask if some of the 106 contribution Redrow have to make can be used for the internal decs for Bunyan, given that, by the time they finish, we'll have had the builders in for about 3 years tramping through our building and car park ... And they remain very keen to make sure the wildlife garden benefits, a point we always emphasise because we all like it so much.

Anyway, as always with Redrow, it was a very productive meeting. They might create really dodgy ads, but they're good to work with. They listen, respond and try hard ... And you can't say fairer than that.