Helen Gordon, a former head of Railtrack developments, leads new firm aiming to build on land near stations
Former Railtrack Development boss Helen Gordon has set up a company called Domaine to roll out mixed-use developments across England.

Domaine, which is the subsidiary of Irish housebuilder and developer Ballymore, is planning large-scale developments in London. The most prominent of these will be the Bishopsgate Goods Yard – which is dependent on the planned East London Line Tube extension going ahead – and the Paddington Triangle next to Paddington station.

Both schemes are in joint venture with developer Hammerson.

Gordon's set-up is pushing ahead with schemes in Birmingham, Liverpool, Hayes in Middlesex, Luton, Cambridge and Bristol.

Gordon said being part of a "well funded" company such as Ballymore would speed up the developments on the sites. "I am hopeful that we will make the schemes happen quicker," she said.

She drew a contrast with working for Railtrack, where property development was constrained by "operational rail issues".

We will make the schemes happen quicker than Railtrack

Helen Gordon, Domaine

Ballymore bought seven sites on land next to train stations from Hammerson at the end of last year. Hammerson had acquired them, along with 20 or so others, when it bought Railtrack Development earlier in the year.

Gordon said the venture could offer a mixture of commercial and residential developments.

She said: "The great thing from my point of view is that we can genuinely look at residential and commercial together without doing what classic commercial developers do, which is to ringfence the elements. We have the ability to look at comprehensive projects."

Gordon, a former director at contractor Laing, said she was looking to increase the residential elements of some of the schemes.