Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC is pushing forward plans to build a huge underground commercial scheme in the heart of the West End. 

GIC has teamed up with developer Reef + Partners as the equity partner on a 280K SF conversion of the underground car park beneath Cavendish Square, just off Oxford Circus, Green Street News reported. 

The duo has appointed JLL to find about £250M of development finance to fund the project, which is expected to cost about £500M. Lenders are putting together debt terms, according to Green Street. 

Planning regulations have prohibited developers from building up in much of the West End, but this project calls for building down. The scheme involves redeveloping the underground car park into a four-storey scheme, with external light wells and internal atria being created to bring in natural light. 

The project will essentially be a healthcare scheme, targeting private healthcare operators of the kind that one would find on nearby Harley Street. Several U.S. operators are in talks to take space in the Cavendish Square scheme, Green Street reported. 

Planning was originally granted in 2020, at which point the scheme had a projected cost of just £150M. But the estimates have more than tripled in the six years since.

It also took several years to find an equity investor willing to back an unconventional real estate project.

Cavendish Square has turned into something of an epicentre for development in the West End. A company owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family is redeveloping 33 Cavendish Square, one of the only office towers in the heart of the West End. The 800K SF office element of the scheme is likely to be worth more than £1.5B, if current rental values hold.