Funded by the Learning Skills Council, the new state-of-the-art facilities for Hastings College will be built at Station Plaza, Hastings and at Ore Valley, Rother.

The site at Station Plaza (being sold to the college by Sea Space) will feature a wide range of vocational training and academic learning environments including a new 6th Form Academy. The site also includes a learning centre as well as over 100 private residential apartments, underground parking and a primary care health facility and space for a pharmacy. At Ore Valley, a 5,900 sq m business and technology centre with engineering and construction workshops will be built.

The joint-venture between John Laing and Gladedale has purchased Hastings College’s estate of three other sites, which will be re-developed for residential purposes with provision for social and affordable housing.  Funds from this purchase will be used to part-fund the construction of the new college buildings.

The residential apartments adjacent to the new college building at Station Plaza will be developed by John Laing’s joint-venture partner, Gladedale. They will be delivered to Eco Homes ‘Excellent’ and Millennium Community standards; with 25% of the units delivered as affordable homes and 3% of the units disability enabled. 

John Laing has acted as an interface with Network Rail in overcoming challenges relating to parking facilities for railway staff along with construction related issues of working adjacent to operational railway lines.  John Laing’s involvement in this project allows the college to acquire a larger, more sophisticated facility far in excess of that which would have been available given the standard methods of funding.