Surrey’s Sixpenny Group to develop Crawley EV charging hub

Bagshot-based real estate investor and developer Sixpenny Group has revealed plans to develop an electric vehicle super charging hub at the Manor Royal business park in Crawley, West Sussex.

The project will see a redundant 19,000 sq ft office block demolished and replaced with a 28-bay hub and two retail and restaurant units, which the developer is letting to a national supermarket and food-on-the-go operator.

Acquired off market, the one-acre site is located on Gatwick Road in the Manor Royal Business District, home to more than 600 businesses and 30,000 staff.

Planning permission for the charging hub is currently being sought and it’s anticipated the facility will be open to customers in early- to mid-2025.

It will provide 28 charging bays with a mixture of 22, 180, 240 and 400 kilowatt chargers, with eight dedicated charging stations for long wheelbase commercial vans.

The hub will also feature a high specification BESS (Battery Energy Storage System) capable of providing one megawatt output for 2 hours (2 MVA).

In addition to 5,500 sq ft of retail and restaurant units, the site will also feature a ‘pocket park’ providing a space for customers and the public.

Sixpenny Group is developing the new facility with joint partners Arcus-PCD.

The development in Crawley marks the beginning of a series of planned EV Hubs focused on building capacity across Greater London and the south of the UK.

The joint venture is actively working on securing the next locations to continue this expansion.

Sixpenny Group and Arcus-PCD previously collaborated at Manor Royal business park on the Gemstone Building, an 83,000 sq ft warehousing and logistics facility that was pre-let to parcel delivery giant Evri and sold to CBRE Global Investors in September 2022. 

Egor Shestakov, a director at Sixpenny Group, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to transform unproductive office space into EV facilities that are very much in demand within the UK’s largest industrial business improvement district.

“As a purpose-driven SME, we’re focused on opportunities like this where our vision and commitment to sustainability and community will deliver long-term value for all stakeholders.”

David Bowcock, also a director at Sixpenny Group, added: “Working with our partners at Arcus-PCD, we have a strong track record of creating highly investible assets and are looking forward to bringing another world-class development to Manor Royal.

“The new charging facility will help address the growing demand for rapid chargers, which are currently in short supply.

“With its proximity to the airport and other transport networks the location is booming, so bringing high quality EV charging capacity and facilities will help underpin its sustainable growth.”

Sixpenny Group recently announced its purchase of The Gladstone building, a 45,000 sq ft residential-led mixed-use development in Cricklewood, North London for £21.5 million.

The business is now investing in normalising the development and establishing a professionalised letting and management framework before bringing the asset back to market over the next couple of years.