Bristol-based retirement village developer St Monica Trust is to expand its showpiece Chocolate Quarter at Keynsham following the acquisition of a further half an acre.
The scheme, on the former Cadbury factory at Somerdale, will add around 36 more retirement apartments to the village. The brownfield land was bought by St Monica Trust, based in Westbury on Trym from housing developer Taylor Wimpey for an undisclosed sum in an off-market deal. 
The Chocolate Quarter development already has 140 assisted living apartments, a 90-bed care home, retail outlets, leisure facilities and a health centre as well as employment space.
The planning team in the Bristol office of regional property agency Alder King handled the acquisition for St Monica Trust and Newport-based architecture firm KWL has been retained to secure planning permission for the scheme, which is on Trajectus Way between The Chocolate Quarter and the Somerdale Pavilion.
The team has already conducted extensive pre-application consultations with Bath & North East Somerset Council to inform the planning application, which will be submitted later this year.
Alder King partner Ben St Quintin said: “The St Monica Trust has created a unique and hugely successful mixed use development at The Chocolate Quarter, with assisted living apartments, a care home and an impressive range of retail and leisure facilities which are open to the local community and wider public.
“This transaction now provides the Trust with the scope to expand its retirement living provision and we look forward to playing our part in bringing forward this latest phase.”
Taylor Wimpey is developing hundreds of homes as part of its £34m development on the site.
The factory buildings were built in the 1930s when what was then Fry’s relocated from Bristol. The site was closed in 2011 after Cadbury was taken over by US food giant Kraft. The Chocolate Quarter was shortlisted for The Housing Design Awards in 2018.
