VSM’s first Nine Elms tower block approved

VSM, a joint venture between Vinci UK Developments and St Modwen, has received planning permission to build a 26-storey block of flats in London’s Nine Elms district.VSM’s Apex 1 development will have 201 residential apartments as well as 5,250 sq ft of retail space on land released as a result of the joint venture’s New Covent Garden Market redevelopment.Designed by Glenn Howells Architects to be “near net zero”, Apex 1 is the first building of the wider Apex development site which has outline consent for a further 422 homes and 66,000 sq ft of commercial space.Apex 1 incorporates a two-storey pavilion to house ground floor retail and a first-floor amenity area for residents, as well as a roof garden. The development will include a landscaped walkway (known as Merchants Way) between the Nine Elms Linear Park and the new Nine Elms tube station.The Apex site is one of four surplus land sites that form part of the ongoing transformation of New Covent Garden Market by VSM under a development agreement with Covent Garden Market Association.