This Week's 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.
Following a detailed procurement process, Reading Borough Council has selected McLaren Living to deliver the new £250M Minster Quarter Central scheme, which may include over 600 new homes, 30% of which will be affordable homes across a range of tenures, including affordable social rent and affordable private rent, the council said.
Proposals also include over 430K SF of new commercial space, including workspace, retail, food and beverage, a 102-bed hotel and public spaces, including a new Hexagon Square as a civic space, designed as a gateway to Reading’s Hexagon Theatre and new Studio Theatre.
The development is central to the wider Minster Quarter Regeneration Area, which has the potential to create a new mixed-use neighbourhood in the heart of Reading town centre, delivering upward of 1,200 homes.
Over the next decade, neighbouring landowners plan to bring forward a series of schemes. These include the redevelopment of Thames Valley Police Station, Broad Street Mall, Magistrates Court investment and the council’s own plans to create a cultural campus with the Hexagon Theatre and new Studio Theatre extension, made possible through Levelling Up funding.
FUNDING
Cheyne Capital Real Estate has provided a £143M development loan to Riverstone, a developer and operator of living for over-65s in prime London locations, for its latest residence on The Bishops Avenue, Hampstead Heath, north London.
This is the third such loan that Cheyne has made to Riverstone, the first being for the Fulham Riverside scheme in 2021, which has since been repaid, and the second for the Riverstone Kensington development in 2022.
The Bishops Avenue scheme will consist of 93 apartments and amenities such as a concierge, chauffeur service, spa treatment rooms, a cinema, a restaurant, a bar and a recovery/physiotherapy suite.
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Bruntwood SciTech, the commercial real estate joint venture between Bruntwood, Legal & General and Greater Manchester Pension Fund, has secured an increased loan facility totalling £480M.
As part of the deal, Barclays has become a new lender alongside the existing consortium of HSBC, Lloyds Bank, NatWest and Santander, with the term of the loan having also been extended by three years.
Bruntwood SciTech has a three-year, £480M financial package to support its growth ambitions; a £430M investment facility, of which £350M is a term loan and £80M is a revolving credit facility; and a £50M development facility.
This most recent funding will support the development of No. 3 Circle Square within Manchester’s Oxford Road Corridor innovation district, which began construction in July last year, along with refurbishments and improvements at the Alderley Park life sciences campus. It is also expected to fund the third phase of Manchester Science Park’s 1M SF master plan and the initial phase of development for ID Manchester, a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and The University of Manchester to deliver the £1.7B innovation district.
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Developer Hub and sustainable impact investor Bridges Fund Management have signed an £88M forward-funding deal with Singapore-based real estate developer City Developments to deliver Yardhouse, a mixed-tenure scheme in Wood Lane, west London.
The development will deliver 209 co-living homes alongside amenity spaces and two roof terraces. Through a partnership with Women’s Pioneer Housing, a specialist housing association, the project will also deliver 60 new affordable homes for single women, as well as a new head office for WPH.
Hub and Bridges were advised by Knight Frank, Gowling WLG and Archor.
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Investment firm Carlyle Group’s global credit platform has provided Round Hill Capital with a £115M loan to fund the construction of Fairfax, a 488-unit luxury build-to-rent scheme in Manchester. It represents the first transaction between the two parties.
The Fairfax development, which was acquired by Round Hill Capital in August 2022 via a forward-funding agreement, comprises two towers totalling 488 one- and two-bed apartments.
BTR developer Olympian Homes is the development manager on the scheme, with RG Group serving as the main contractor. Groundwork has been completed, with the concrete cores well progressed.
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Stoneweg InfraSport, a recently launched partnership between Stoneweg and Teras Capital focused on the acquisition, development and operation of man-made urban surf destinations across Europe, has acquired the former Emerge Surf development site in Coleshill, Birmingham, from IM Properties, where it intends to deliver the UK’s largest wave park.
The £50M commitment represents Stoneweg’s first investment in the UK and will be centred around a 5.4-acre man-made Wavegarden Cove surfing lagoon able to generate up to 1,000 2-metre waves per hour. Emerge Surf founder Steve Price will remain as general manager of the wave park, which is due for completion in the fourth quarter of 2025 and is expected to welcome up to 200,000 visitors per year.
Visitors will also have access to a surf academy, equipment rental and surf store, restaurant areas with coworking spaces, hot tubs, a playground and a pump track.
The Birmingham wave park is the second being developed by Stoneweg InfraSport following the launch in Madrid last year of what will be the largest wave park in Europe, in partnership with Atlético Madrid.
DEVELOPMENT
Two years after work was due to start, Communities Secretary Michael Gove has approved the ITV Studios redevelopment on the South Bank.
Gove has approved CO-RE and Mitsubishi Estate’s £700M scheme, set to be delivered by Lendlease, which will replace the former 24-storey tower with a 26-storey staggered office building.
Project Vista will provide 900K SF of offices, cafés, restaurants, cultural venues and green spaces.
LEASING
Institutional brokerage and investment firm CITIC CLSA has taken two floors at 8 Bishopsgate, signing a 15-year lease for around 16K SF.
Earlier this year, the building’s owner, Mitsubishi Estate London, and developer Stanhope announced a raft of new occupiers, including SCOR and AEW. The addition of CITIC CLSA means 15% of the building remains available.
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Native Land has announced that Merlin Entertainments will have a new London office in 14K SF on the 16th floor of Arbor, Bankside Yards.
Merlin Entertainments has taken a 10-year lease in the 223K SF Arbor to expand its London footprint in a location close to its established office in County Hall.
Arbor tenants include The Carbon Trust, which relocated its headquarters to 14K SF in March, while law firm Lewis Silkin has moved into 28K SF on the sixth and seventh floors after taking a pre-let in December 2021. Law firm Winckworth Sherwood took 28K SF over two floors in May, and Smiths Group moved its headquarters from St. James’s Square to 14K SF at Arbor at the beginning of 2024.
Native Land is a co-investing joint venture partner in Bankside Yards, alongside Temasek, Amcorp Properties Berhad and Hotel Properties of Singapore.
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Abrdn, on behalf of the Standard Life Pooled Property Pension Fund, has exchanged an agreement for lease with Primark to occupy a split of the former Debenhams store at Parkway Shopping Centre, Newbury.
The proposed store extends to circa 35K SF over the ground and first floors, and Abrdn will be carrying out division works and aim to hand the unit over to Primark at the end of 2024 with a view to Primark fitting out and opening in 2025.
