DEVELOPERS are now scrambling for a slice of the huge contracts to develop the old VT factory site in Southampton after the South East England Development Agency announced it is looking for partners.

Now renamed Woolston Riverside, the 32-acre site is expected to be worth £350 million when it is completed.

Site owners SEEDA, who snapped it up for £15m, have launched the tender process to find a partner to create up to 1,500 homes and 60,000 square metres of commercial space.

It is billed as the biggest urban development opportunity in south Hampshire to arise in the next decade.

A planning brief detailing a mixed use future for the site, which is hoped to create and or safeguard up to 1,000 jobs, has already been agreed with the city council.

Now they have to pick the company to build the vision.

A SEEDA statement said: "Expressions of interest are being sought from developers which have a track record of producing schemes incorporating high standards of sustainable regeneration, and experience of working on large, complex, mixed-use developments."

Already, developers are queuing up to bid for a contract.

SEEDA's Head of Land and Property Ken Glendinning, said: "We have had considerable interest in the site, whether it 's from volume house builders or local companies. It's a huge opportunity."

Using an illustrative masterplan, world renowned architects the Richard Rogers Partnership are currently drawing up detailed plans for the site and have vowed to come up with something special.

RRP is behind such high-profile projects as the Millennium Dome, Paris's Pompidou Centre and the Welsh National Assembly Centre in Cardiff and has been scouring Europe for inspiration for Woolston's regeneration.

Architect Andy Young has a special relationship with the

site because he grew up in Woolston.

"Our aspirations are that this should be a fantastic place," he said. "You can expect something special."

Submissions, in the form of a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, to develop all or part of the site, will be reviewed by the Agency early in 2005.

A shortlist of developers announced in spring 2005.

The selection of the preferred development partners will take place in summer 2005.

For a copy of the PQQ, visit www.woolstonriverside.com