The infrastructure management specialist, Groupe Eurotunnel, with its reputation for innovative and sustainable development, has won the tender organised by the Sangatte local council to create a new international tournament standard golf club and spa resort on the Channel coast. Situated at the foot of Cap Blanc Nez, the resort will be next door to the departure point used by Louis Bleriot when he first flew across the straits of Dover.
Eurotunnel, which owns part of the land to be used for the project, has created a subsidiary called Euro Immo GET and has called on the project management resources of ADEVIA, which has experience in the construction of Eco villages and the technical aspects of development projects.
The 160 hectare project, which was presented at MIPIM (the international construction trade fair held in Marseille), is made up of an international tournament standard golf course inspired by Kyle Phillips, 40 hectares of residential accommodation (more than 500 homes, 90 villas and 180 apartments), a spa, retail zone and ancillary services (1600m²).
When it was created in the 1980s the French Authorities gave Eurotunnel a responsibility for local development. Since then, the Eurotunnel Group has already created a leading shopping and leisure centre in Coquelles, attracting 7 million visitors per year, a multi screen cinema complex, a business park and a hotel centre.
Working together with the town of Sangatte Bleriot-Plage, the Eurotunnel Group aims to create a major new attraction not only for golfers, but also for visitors from the local area and across Europe, at the entrance to the Channel Tunnel, the crossroads of Northern Europe.
Promoting sustainable development and providing high quality destinations for visitors the Eurotunnel Group is fulfilling one of its principal vocations: linking communities.
GBN.com contacted Richard Wax, Chairman of Golf Surveys Ltd, who has been advising Eurotunnel for the past ten years and said: “I am delighted that France will soon have its first championship length links-style golf course designed by Kyle Phillips who has achieved global recognition for his courses on similar sites at Kingsbarns and Dundonald, both in Scotland and Yas Links in Abu Dhabi. As a build-up to the hosting of the Ryder Cup at the Golf National in 2018, the links at Calais-Sangatte will strengthen France’s position in the golfing world.”