Retirement Villages Group (RVG), owned by AXA IM Real Assets, has secured permission to redevelop the former ABC cinema site on Mount Pleasant Road, which has lain vacant in the Kentish town for more than two decades. 

The new block will have 166 apartments and all the usual on-site amenities associated with these later living developments – restaurant, bar, pool, gym and function room.  There will also be nine retail units.

RVG plans to acquire and develop up to 40 new later living schemes across the UK over the next 15 years.

Chief executive Will Bax said: “We have set out to create amazing, sustainable communities, connected to thriving local centres, breathing new life into urban and suburban neighbourhoods and country locations. Our next generation of urban retirement villages will be built to the highest design and sustainability standards. In towns such as Tunbridge Wells, this also means the regeneration of sites that have long been neglected. We are delighted to be moving forward with exciting plans to regenerate a site at Tunbridge Wells that has been dormant for two decades.”

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