Firethorn Puts Spy Building Up For Sale: The London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.
Firethorn has put One Bessborough Gardens up for sale via JLL. The landmark building is rumoured to have previously been used as a training facility by MI5.
The building occupies a prominent position at the northern approach to Vauxhall Bridge and, despite its heritage appearance, was completed in 1988 and officially opened by King Charles III, then the Prince of Wales.
The vacant building has been stripped back internally to its concrete frame, ready for redevelopment and repositioning. The vendor said it could suit a range of uses, including luxury residential, hotel, hostel, coliving, embassy, museum or gallery use.
Several planning consents are already in place, including approval for conversion to 52 residential apartments under permitted development rights. The building also has consent for an office extension.
No formal guide price has been confirmed, but the gross development value is estimated at £80M to £100M, depending on the option taken.
“Firethorn acquired One Bessborough Gardens off market with a clear strategy to unlock the building’s value potential through planning, repositioning and asset preparation,” Firethorn Living Director Marcus Weeks said in a statement. “Having secured the key consents, we are now bringing this iconic asset to market.”
FUNDING
Aviva Investors has provided a green loan toward the construction of a 283-unit purpose-built student accommodation scheme in Elephant and Castle, which is being brought forward by Fabrix and Patrizia.
The facility, aligned to the Loan Market Association’s Green Loan Principles, has been made by the Aviva Investors Multi Sector Private Debt Long Term Asset Fund and is the first investment into the PBSA market made by the fund, following several investments into the office and logistics sectors.
The 134K SF scheme will deliver 283 student beds alongside 35% on-site affordable social rent homes. The mixed-use development will also include more than 5K SF of retail space on the ground floor, along with a new landscaped courtyard garden and more than 2,600 SF of community space.
The scheme will target a BREEAM Excellent certification and an A energy performance certificate, retaining and remodelling the existing concrete frame of the 1980s building while incorporating all-electric heating, air-source heat pumps and on-site solar renewable energy generation.
DEVELOPMENT
International Workplace Group is launching Humanly South Kensington, a health and well-being workspace concept at 1 Cromwell Place, designed for practitioners across the healthcare and well-being industries.
Introduced in 2026, Humanly is a new IWG brand that offers flexible, treatment-ready spaces for medical, therapy, wellness, beauty, fitness and rehabilitation professionals.
The latest scheme will feature a range of specialist rooms and facilities including private consultation suites, treatment rooms, therapy and physiotherapy spaces, gym studios, and dedicated reception and waiting areas. It will be delivered in partnership with South Kensington Estate.
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McLaren Construction has been appointed by BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts as the main contractor for the redevelopment of the former BBC Elstree Centre, which has been rebranded as Fairbanks Studios to reflect its ownership in the 1950s by Hollywood legend Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
With planning consent secured in December and enabling and demolition works now complete, main build construction works commenced in April. Around half of the 16-acre site is to be transformed into a 266K SF campus for the high-end TV and independent film industry, which will be operational late in 2027. The remainder was recently upgraded by the BBC, which occupies the space under a long-term lease.
The brownfield redevelopment will more than quadruple the stage space to approximately 100K SF across five soundstages, ranging from 16K SF to 21K SF. The expansion will add new workshops, offices and a café, alongside the 58K SF media hub offering office and amenity spaces for media-related industries and businesses connected to the studios.
PLANNING
The Mayor of London has granted approval for the redevelopment of Great North Leisure Park in Finchley, London, into a mixed-use neighbourhood.
Arada London plans include a leisure centre, 1,485 new homes, more than 43K SF of new public realm and a new sports pavilion on the 11-acre site. The residential component will be spread across 20 buildings, including 25% affordable housing arranged around new streets.
A new sports pavilion next to Glebelands playing fields and more than 2.5 acres of new landscaping will be added, including play areas, ecological corridors and green roofs predicted to deliver more than a 150% biodiversity net gain.
PEOPLE
Delancey has appointed Emma Murray as director, capital strategies. Murray will work across all of Delancey’s capital strategies, spanning debt and equity, supporting existing mandates, new opportunities and separately managed accounts.
Murray has joined Delancey from Fiera Real Estate, where she had served as director of business development and capital raising since 2015. Murray’s appointment follows Lesley Davison rejoining Delancey as managing director of capital markets in March.
