London Sport & Art Invest Real Estate partnership to embed physical activity into Canada Water Dockside

Art-Invest Real Estate (Art-Invest) and London Sport are pleased to announce a partnership that will see London Sport support the provision of sport and physical activity at Canada Water Dockside, Art-Invest’s 4.5-acre office-led scheme in Canada Water, Southwark. This partnership is one of the first major initiatives that London Sport will be working on with large developments in the capital. 

Canada Water Dockside is set to become the new commercial quarter at the heart of the wider Canada Water regeneration area, next to Canada Water Station, the Dock’s waterfront and British Land’s 53-acre scheme. It comprises 3 new exceptional headquarter buildings to provide c.1.5 million sq ft (140,000 sqm) of grade A, sustainability-certified workspace for 10,000 people, alongside community spaces, and new places to eat and drink across the ground floor.  

Canada Water Dockside also benefits from over 130 acres of green and blue space, with easy access to 40 established health and wellbeing amenities – the only location in London able to offer this. Central to Art-Invest’s vision for the scheme is to ensure that it supports improved health and wellbeing for local people and new office workers.  

The partnership with London Sport enables Art-Invest to go further in understanding health and wellbeing provision, providing access to new public realm, establishing connections with surrounding facilities and supporting local initiatives working in sport, play and wellbeing. 

According to data from Sport England, nearly a third of adult residents in Southwark are not meeting the recommended levels of physical activity. This pioneering partnership aims to better understand the solutions needed to improve these activity levels for the long term. Partnering in the early stages of the Canada Water Dockside’s evolution is fundamental to ensuring the development can encourage and enable more people in and around Canada Water to get involved in physical activities of all kinds. The partnership will also enable Canada Water Dockside to directly benefit from of one of London Sport’s key themes of establishing ‘Active Environments’, i.e.  ensuring the environment around communities are designed to make it as easy and accessible as possible for people to be active.  

The plans for Canada Water Dockside follow three years of engagement with the community, which has seen over 30 community engagement events, a consultation website and a series of stakeholder meetings, which has seen the development plans evolve in response to community and stakeholder feedback. The commission includes detailed research into the current provision of sport and leisure in the area, the creation of a ‘borough profile’ to better understand the demographics and attitudes of current residents.  

As part of the redevelopment plans, a £200,000 Health and Wellbeing Fund in partnership with Decathlon has been set up to encourage health and wellbeing in Canada Water. London Sport’s commission and research will play a vital role in ensuring that this fund can continue to have the greatest impact for Canada Water and its residents. 

Redevelopment of Canada Water Dockside

Emily Robinson, CEO of London Sport said: “Almost 3 million Londoners are not hitting the recommended levels of physical activity and putting their health at risk, so we need to think innovatively about the ways we can embed activity into new developments.  
  
“The work happening in Canada Water Dockside will act as a blueprint for how we can design and create active environments across the capital, and we look forward to our partnership with Art-Invest making a real impact on the health and wellbeing of local communities.” 
 
 
Luka Vukotic, Development Director, Art-Invest Real Estate said: “This is a really exciting partnership for Canada Water Dockside and we are pleased to have been able to have London Sport on board at the critical, early stage of the scheme’s evolution. Their expertise and experience, together with invaluable feedback from the local community, will be key in facilitating sustained and meaningful improvements to health and wellbeing of both the existing and new community.”