Our vision for Daedalus Waterfront is to bring innovation, energy, and excitement back to HMS Daedalus.
1. Create jobs and opportunities for local people.
2. Preserve and celebrate the site’s rich heritage, including its historic buildings.
3. Support the Hovercraft Museum and help it thrive as a unique visitor destination.
4. Restore pride in HMS Daedalus as a place of purpose and progress.
This thoughtful restoration of a thriving, historic naval base, will feature new and restored homes, workspaces of all sizes, and welcoming green, leisure, and community spaces, alongside a worldclass visitor attraction and a seafront designed for bringing people together. Combining elegant industrial heritage with modern energy, it’s a place designed to inspire pride and foster connection.
Enjoying a spectacular setting on Lee-on-Solent with views of the Isle of Wight, and halfway between Portsmouth and Southampton. This special location enjoys sunshine higher than the national average, and some the highest levels of cycling in the UK. It’s a destination for sailors and swimmers, dog walkers and runners.
We’re creating a mixed-use, mixed age community, carefully curated one phase at a time, to ensure each step brings forward jobs alongside homes to create a place with distinct character. Connected by thoughtfully designed landscapes, green squares and outdoor experiences, this will be a place that people will love and feel proud to call their own.
new homes of mixed type and tenure (10% affordable)
contemporary homes in heritage buildings
local jobs created on-site
social and economic value delivered over 10 years
of new public spaces and green spaces
investment in and support for the Hovercraft Museum
We are committed to delivering a place that is considerate of people and their needs through every life stage, one that contributes to and enhances its historical surroundings. We will foster sustainability, promote social well-being, encourage innovation and ensure economic resilience by creating a healthy and inclusive environment for people to live, work and play.
Creating a thriving mixed-age and mixed-use community
Saving and celebrating the extraordinary heritage of this site
Jobs, apprenticeships and opportunity delivered alongside homes
A place where the environmentis restored and thrives
Significant natural native and coastal planting and landscaping to encourage wildlife and biodiversity
Homes designed and renovated for low-carbon living and built to last
Walkable neighbourhoods and cycle friendly streets prioritised for the human and not the car
Sustainable transport options and initiatives embedded in the masterplan for visitors and users alike
Encouraging electric vehicles through the widespread installation of EV charging points.
Solar panels installed wherever appropriate to supplement existing energy sources with renewable power
As master developers* of this complex, mixed-use site, Daedalus Development Company will coordinate with expert delivery partners to bring forward high-quality homes, alongside vibrant public, commercial and industrial spaces—delivered efficiently and to the highest standards.
Our collaboration with Homes England lays the foundation for the project.
Our collaboration with Homes England lays the foundation for the project, with funding for critical infrastructure enabling a phased approach that accelerates the restoration of key heritage assets.
We are also working closely with the Hovercraft Museum, placing this unique and historic attraction at the heart of the site’s transformation, supporting it financially and ensuring its future is secured alongside the redevelopment.
We are also working closely with the Hovercraft Museum, placing this unique and historic attraction at the heart of the site’s transformation, supporting it financially and ensuring its future is secured alongside the redevelopment.
Our first delivery partnership is with local manufacturer Blanchard Wells, who share our commitment to creating jobs, supporting skills and training through their work with CETC, and restoring pride in the area with a new state-of-the-art manufacturing and office facility.
* A master developer is an entity who helps deliver a complex, multi-phase project by creating a vision and securing a masterplan, and then uses a range of different mechanisms to ensure the delivery of the masterplan, whilst ensuring that the project adheres to the original vision. Thismight include self-delivery or joint-ventures, or the sale of individual plots or phases. Any partnership or sale would includes caveats and controls to ensure that the original vision is delivered.
