This Week's London Deal Sheet
Plans for one of London’s tallest skyscrapers face rejection because it has too many flats for singles. Unless developer Cubitt Property Holdings adds children's play areas and more affordable offerings, the 56-storey building at 225 Marsh Wall may never be.
The tower is proposed with 221 studio and one-bedroom flats, 154 two-bedroom flats and 39 three-bedroom flats, as well as retail and office space. Cubitt Property Holdings offered to make a quarter of the homes affordable to both buyers and renters, but the council wants one-third of the units to be affordable. Mayor Sadiq Kahn can overrule the council, but that's not likely. In the run-up to May's mayoral election, he pledged to force developers to make half their homes affordable for low and middle-income customers. Councilors on the planning committee also complained 225 Marsh Wall had no provisions for children’s play areas.
EXECS
Kate Bowyer joined The Crown Estate as CFO.
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Shripal Shah will join JC Rathbone Associates to help beef up the firm’s real estate debt advisory business. He was formerly HSBC’s UK head of real estate finance.
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Angus Dodd was promoted to Quintain’s CEO. Quintain is the real estate development company behind the Wembley Park transformation.
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Matthew Higgs was appointed managing director of Countryside Partnership’s South business.
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Architecture firm Woods Bagot appointed Sir Philip Dilley as non-executive chairman. He's here on right with executive chairman Ross Donaldson and CEO Nik Karalis.
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Mark Calder joined BNP Paribas Real Estate as a director to focus on central London restaurant leasing, acquisitions and disposals on behalf of landlords and tenants.
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Tom Bridgman, Chris Barrs and Piers Leigh joined Avison Young as principals. All three will be charged with building Avison Young’s presence in the South East office market, as the firm looks to expand into other markets in the UK.
SALES
AXA Investment Managers-Real Assets and BlackRock Real Estate sold 6 Bevis Marks, which they jointly developed and let, for about £220M. The buyer was a private client of Citi Private Bank.
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DTZ Investors acquired 80-86 St. John’s Road in Clapham for £10.6M on behalf of Strathclyde Pension Fund. The mixed-use project features retail at ground and basement level, plus nine residential units on the upper floors.
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Software asset management company Certero purchased a new Warrington office with six-figure funding from HSBC. The new digs will allow the company to create eight new jobs, with 10 more coming over the next year.
DEVELOPMENT
Reef Estates plans to build an £80M "aparthotel" in Aldgate. The 21-story, 178-key development will be funded by Osprey Equity Partners and operated by Go Native.
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Homeware giant The Range will build a £90M distribution centre near Bristol. McLaren Construction will handle the contract. At 1.2M SF, it will be the size of 15 Wembley Stadiums.
FINANCE
London residential specialist Mount Anvil has sourced £70M of debt for its next development scheme in the capital with Royal Bank of Scotland. RBS is providing the loan for Hampstead Manor, the former King’s College London student residence at Kidderpore Avenue in Hampstead, which Mount Anvil bought last year.
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Circle Property received a new £50M revolving facility with Royal Bank of Scotland to provide capital for acquisitions.
THIS AND THAT
London-based contractor Willmott Dixon opened an office in Exeter as it targets growth in the south west. The company won several projects recently, including a deal to build a £20M office for the Met Office’s supercomputer at Exeter Science Park.
