Lender Chasing £61M After Giant Resi Site Collapses
The lender to a huge residential development is looking to recoup £61M from the sale of the site after the companies that owned it went into administration and receivership.
A report to creditors of Regeneration (UK) from administrators at RSM said the sale of a 263-acre site in Biggleswade is ongoing, with agents at CSquared and SW appointed to manage the sale. The disposal could be concluded imminently.
Regeneration (UK) is the holding company over companies that owned the site, which has planning permission for 1,500 new homes in the Bedfordshire town of Biggleswade, located 46 miles north of London and almost equidistant between Oxford and Cambridge.
One of its subsidiaries, and the name under which the company is better known, is UK Regeneration. One of its founders was Jackie Sadek, whose 30-year-plus career in the property and regeneration industry has included working on projects in London and surrounding areas like the Thames Gateway.
From March 2014 to July 2016, Sadek held the position of specialist regeneration adviser to Greg Clark, former minister for cities and, later, secretary of state for communities and local government.
Sadek resigned as chief operation officer of UK Regeneration in November 2021, before the receivership and administration, ending her involvement with the company.
The Biggleswade scheme was set to include a range of associated facilities in addition to the homes, including a new primary school and nonresidential uses, from a bakery and farm shops to coffee shops.
But the scheme was delayed due to wrangling over planning obligations and payments to the local authority. Last August, receivers were appointed to the site. Administrators were appointed to the companies that owned it in December.
RSM’s report said that the main lender, Octopus Real Estate, is owed £61M, but it could not say how much would be recouped from the sale of the site.
The company’s sole director — and one of the early directors and backers — is Jason Blain, a former global head of strategy for Sony Entertainment and BBC Worldwide.
Blain made the news twice in 2022. He faced a legal action in January from the Mandarin Oriental hotel in London over a £704K bill he incurred over a period of eight months.
In December 2022, a Gloucestershire mansion he bought through a special-purpose vehicle and previously owned by author Evelyn Waugh, was sold at auction after a loan secured against it went into default. The property had tenants in situ at a low rent who refused to leave, even to allow estate agents to view the house.
