Housing association Gentoo to invest in new Sunderland trade base

Housing association Gentoo is set to invest in a new base on the former Littlewoods site in Sunderland as part of moves to bring extra benefits to customers and colleagues.

Gentoo has picked the site in Hendon to become the location for Eastgate Point, the new home for its property services teams from summer 2026.

The multimillion-pound Eastgate Point complex, a 120,000 sqft industrial project, will be developed by Promenade Properties and will also feature other trade units across several buildings on the site of the former retailer, as well as an EV charging station and drive-thru coffee shop.

The scheme brings certainty to a site which has seen a number of planning bids brought forward without being put into action. Plans for a builders merchants with trade counters were approved by the city council in 2019 but no development followed at the time.

The facility will also see Gentoo’s current materials suppliers, Jewson Partnership Solutions (JPS), move into the base, saying that a closer working relationship will bring an improved service that will reduce waiting times for repairs and planned investment works for customers’ homes.

Marc Edwards, Gentoo’s executive director of property, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Eastgate Point will become the new home of our colleagues in property, delivering maintenance and investment to customers’ homes. “We have been working tirelessly for the last 18 months to find the right location for a new home. And here we will have a brand new, purpose-built, best in class, state-of-the-art facility.

“It will be designed to make sure that, as part of the £75m service that we deliver annually through our property maintenance and investment teams, all colleagues are together in one location.”