DORSET’S biggest private landlord has started one of its laregest ever developments in the centre of Bournemouth.

DWP Housing Partnership – formerly Dave Wells Properties – is investing £5m in 64 flats on Lorne Park Road, off Old Christchurch Road.

The site, covering more than an acre, has been cleared by Glossbrook Builders after the demolition of the existing properties.

The three blocks – two five storeys high and one four storeys high – should be finished in summer 2015. The flats are a mix of studio and one-bedroom homes.

Steve Wells, of DWP Housing Partnership, said: “We believe that this is a key development in Bournemouth and it will provide 64 quality homes to rent. Previously on the site near the town centre were three large detached houses.

“We are investing many millions of pounds in developments across Bournemouth and Poole as well as overhauling our existing housing stock.”

The company says it is planning more developments in the near future. It says it is investing significant sums in updating its housing stock while funding new purpose-built homes.

Rich Fooks, a director of Bournemouth-based Glossbrook Builders, DWP Housing Partnership’s preferred construction partner, is overseeing the development.

He said: “We have now commenced works on this project which is a multi-storey timber frame construction over a reinforced concrete basement car park.

“The works will be completed in the summer of 2015 and will generate employment for a large local sub-contractor base.”

Boscombe-based DWP was established as Dave Wells Properties in 1985. It houses more than 3,000 tenants.