Cerberus' £300M-Plus Luxury London Resi Bet Reaches Moment Of Truth

A luxury residential tower in south-west London, backed by U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management and opposed by numerous celebrities, received a seismic blow last week. 

A planning application for the 29-storey, 110-apartment Glassmill project was rejected by Wandsworth Council officers last year. And last week, the Planning Inspectorate refused the owner — a joint venture between Cerberus and developer Rockwell — the right to appeal the decision. 

The refusal puts the future of any new development on the site in doubt — the proposed project had already been trimmed from 39 storeys. And it comes as another major luxury resi project undertaken by the same joint venture is scheduled to complete and begins in earnest the process of finding buyers. 

“We are carefully reviewing the inspector’s decision before deciding what to do next,” a spokesperson for Rockwell said. “As such, it is premature to speculate about future plans.”

Cerberus bought the sites of the two projects in 2021 and 2022, well after the 2016 peak of the London luxury resi market. 

In Battersea, the Glassmill project received significant opposition from local residents — including Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton — because of its size and massing. 

The building would have included around 50% affordable housing, and Rockwell wrote to the government last year asking for the decision on planning to be “called in,” or taken out of the hands of the local authority and decided by the government. But the appeal fell on deaf ears.

Accounts for the special purpose vehicle that owns the project show Cerberus and Rockwell paid a £1.75M deposit for the site in 2021, with another £43M to be paid once planning was achieved. 

The accounts for 2024 acknowledge that the uncertainty around planning threatened the future of the project and the company itself.

“The directors acknowledge that the rejection of planning permission introduces a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern,” the accounts said.

Farther along the Thames, in April 2025, Rockwell and Cerberus held a topping-out ceremony for the Hurlingham Waterfront project in Fulham.

The scheme comprises 269 apartments, 45 of which are affordable housing, on a 3.2-acre site with a 150-metre frontage on the river.

The scheme is scheduled to complete this quarter, according to accounts for the special purpose vehicle that owns it. The accounts were filed in April and cover 2025. 

Legal completion of sales of flats is also scheduled to begin this quarter, the accounts say, without stating how many sales have been achieved. The spokesperson declined to say how many units have sold. 

“While we can't disclose commercially sensitive figures, we have experienced popular demand for Hurlingham Waterfront's portfolio of apartments, from studios to one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom residences,” the Rockwell spokesperson said.

Prices for apartments at the scheme start at £595K.

Cerberus and Rockwell paid £59M for the site, which was then Hurlingham Retail Park, and embarked on what was described at the time as a £300M development. 

The joint venture took out a loan of up to £150M from Deutsche Bank to fund part of the cost of the development, of which £122M was outstanding at the end of 2025. Last year, the termination date of the loan was extended from December 2026 to June 2027.