UK | Four years after the announcement of the Silkstream regeneration project between Sainsbury’s and St George, the development partners have celebrated two important milestones.
On Wednesday, the 20th of November, the doors of the highly anticipated, state-of-the-art 43,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s supermarket opened for the first time. Alongside this, St George welcomed the first residents to Silkstream this month.
The arrival of the first occupants and the opening of the new store represented a significant step forward in Silkstream's progress, showcasing the results of years of work.
Once complete, Silkstream will be a low-carbon, nature-rich neighbourhood of 1,300 new homes in a prime North West London suburb. Along with the flagship Sainsbury’s store and new homes, Silkstream will comprise a series of beautifully landscaped open spaces. These include a 1.5-acre public park, 1.4 acres of podium gardens and a 175-metre oxbow lake.
Silkstream is set to achieve an impressive 895 percent biodiversity net gain and, working with the London Wildlife Trust, will be sensitively regenerating 300 metres of the embankment of the Silk Stream waterway.
“Our partnership with St George and Berkeley Group at Silkstream has proved a resounding success. We’re excited that customers and residents can now enjoy the benefits. Sainsbury’s has been proudly serving the community in Hendon for over 30 years, and we’re delighted to be able to celebrate these two fantastic milestones in Hendon this month,” said Sainsbury’s Director of Group Property, Procurement and EV Ventures, Patrick Dunne.
“From our development partners to our brilliant store team and everyone in the local community, I’d like to express my thanks for all our incredible support for this project so far. We’re looking forward to hearing what customers think of their brand-new supermarket, and we look forward to seeing Silkstream continue to grow and flourish in the coming years.”
The St George and Sainsbury’s partnership has also delivered significant local economic investment, and the site is expected to support many jobs during the 10-year build programme.
Over 200 paid work placements and work experience opportunities have already been created as part of the delivery of Silkstream. St George was committed to working with over 50 apprentices throughout the development’s lifecycle.
Sainsbury’s has employed over 1,000 people in the London Borough of Barnet and will continue to support local charities, food donation programmes, and its nationwide community initiatives.
It has been determined to be the first choice for food, ensuring more customers in more stores can enjoy more brilliant Sainsbury’s food. As well as showcasing the retailer’s latest supermarket look and feel, the Sainsbury’s in Hendon will provide an extensive array of new features designed to make good food joyful, accessible and affordable for everyone.
Sainsbury’s new ultra-rapid EV charging service, Smart Charge, has also arrived in Hendon. The new store has undercover parking for over 250 vehicles, including ten accessible Smart Charge bays.
Former Hendon supermarket colleagues seamlessly transferred to the new store at 2 Henshaw Parade on the day it opened.
“Sainsbury’s opening a new store is a significant milestone in the creation of Silkstream and has coincided with our first residents moving into Bower House, the first phase of apartments at our parkland neighbourhood in West Hendon. Seeing the evolution from brownfield land to a place people can now call home has been fantastic,” said St George Managing Director Marcus Blake.
“At St George, we strive to transform places to create welcoming environments where people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy a great quality of life. At Silkstream, we are delivering on this ambition. We will continue to do so over the coming years as we build more homes and provide additional shops, restaurants and parkland for our residents and the wider community. This will continue to enhance the area and make it an increasingly captivating offer for buyers.”
Since 2009, Sainsbury’s has been redeveloping existing store sites into mixed-use schemes to create new homes, provide customers with greater choice, and regenerate local communities. The retailer has also recently shared ambitious plans to deliver around 20 new supermarkets within 18 months, including the new Hendon superstore.
