When the Daedalus site was acquired from the military in 1996, it was initially let to various industrial occupiers, utilising some of the hangars and the marine slipway that were constructed during the First World War. Today Daedalus has become the major employment site in the area and transformed with new infrastructure to support its growing workforce through new roads, buildings and significant improvements to the airport.
Towards the southern end of Daedalus, an area was set aside to provide much needed residential housing. To date, two sites have been brought forward delivering more than 300 one, two, three and four-bedroom homes .
Daedalus continues to grow and, in 2021, an eight-metre high sculpture depicting Daedalus poised to take flight for the first time was installed on the open space that flanks the eastern side of the site. This vast area has also been undergoing a transformation and is now open to the public. Having been known locally for years as Daedalus Common, it was renamed The Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Park in honour of Her Majesty The Queen.
By road the B3385 connects it to the A27 and onto the M27 corridor providing connections to Portsmouth and Southampton, plus London via the A3(M) or M3. As part of the public sector investment in the Enterprise Zone’s infrastructure access to the M27 is also currently being upgraded by the £34m Stubbington Bypass scheme.
Air links are provided by Solent Airport that is based at the heart of Daedalus. It offers facilities for executive travel and general aviation by plane and helicopter, with London accessible by the latter in around 20 minutes. Business owners and employees can also take scenic flights in a spitfire or learn to fly from here too!
The southern end of Daedalus fronts onto the Solent and has direct access to a marine slipway that is used by existing occupiers for alternative connectivity along the coast. This will be of particular interest to those in the marine sector and those that use the sea to transport raw materials and finished products. Hovertravel also use the slipway for excursions to the Isle of Wight and scenic flights around the Solent.
The Solent LEP utilised £8m from the Solent Growing Places Fund to lever an infrastructure package valued at over £15m, with additional investment secured from Hampshire County Council and the Government’s Regional Growth Fund to bring about this major regeneration of an ex-military airfield covering 200 hectares into productive use.
In addition, Solent LEP secured £7m of Government grant to invest in upgrading the main access road through the Enterprise Zone and to reinforce the site infrastructure for access to a new development area in Gosport.
In addition to these investments and grant funding towards local road schemes ** to help accessibility to the site, Solent LEP has also grant funded a number of SMEs on site with over £1.7m of funds.
During 2021 Homes England, the Daedalus Waterfront site’s current owner, sought expressions of interest for the remaining 18 hectares (45 acres) to transform it into a thriving and successful waterfront mixed-use development including opportunities for commercial, leisure, elderly living, retail, industrial and enabling residential use.
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