City of London

The Evening Standard reports that the chief executive of London property developer Great Portland Estates has joined the growing list of City voices calling on the government to consider scrapping the ‘tourist tax’. GPE is best known for offices, but it also has a number of retail sites including on Bond Street. CEO Toby Courtauld said footfall has improved around the group’s West End properties but on average it is not fully back to pre-Covid times.Many bosses have recently raised concerns about the impact on retail from the government abolishing VAT-free shopping when Britain left the EU in 2021.

Bisnow reports that Global investment giant Nuveen is in advanced talks to refinance a £152M loan secured against a 633K SF London office campus, while elsewhere in London, an office bought for £270M by another investor has gone into administration. A notice to Nuveen investors that own bonds secured against a loan to the Devonshire Square office building said that a short-term extension to the debt had been agreed until August, with a deal for a long-term refinancing in the final stages of being agreed. The loan was set to mature on 20 May.

The Architect’s Journal reports that The City of London’s pipeline of tall buildings remains ‘vigorous’, despite growing concerns around embodied carbon and calls to retrofit, according to a new report. Published earlier this month by the New London Architecture  (NLA) forum, the 2023 Tall Buildings report aid four schemes above 75m are expected to enter planning in the City before the end of the year. Two have already been submitted recently.

Property Week reports that insurance business Atrium Underwriters has chosen 8 Bishopsgate as its new London headquarters. Atrium has signed a 10-year lease for 14,570 sq ft of office space on the 20th floor, within the 50-storey building.The company, which is set to move into 8 Bishopsgate in October 2023, is relocating from its current office in the Lloyds building.

EG Radius reports that developer Infrastructure Investments has appointed Beachrock to market a 208-bed purpose built student accommodation scheme at Willen House 8-26 Bath Street, Shoreditch. The PBSA scheme is due to complete in 2025 and is currently being marketed for offers over £60 million.

City of Westminster

EG Radius reports that developer Kajima has been given the go-ahead from Westminster City Council for the partial refurbishment and extension of Orwell House, 18 Berners Street, W1. The property investor, developer and asset manager says it plans to upgrade the 24,600 sqft building to enhance operational safety, sustainability and occupier wellbeing.

Property Week reports that a parliamentary scrutiny committee has warned there is a “real and rising risk” that the Palace of Westminster” will be destroyed by a catastrophic incident before delayed, multi-billion-pound plans to restore it are carried out. Parliament is understood to be spending up to £2m a week on “patching up” the palace, and a report from the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this week warned that the building is “leaking, dropping masonry and at constant risk of fire”.

In Westminster, Westminster City Council will continue to develop a permanent scheme with widened pavements on Warwick Way and Churton Street after nearly three quarters of local residents backed the proposals. New measures will allow for alfresco dining to continue in the heart of Pimlico.The council installed temporary alfresco dining measures in July 2020 to allow restaurants, cafes and pubs to cater to customers outside during the heigh of the COVID pandemic. In Pimlico, this was achieved by making Warwick Way one-way and suspending parking bays on Churton Street to create alfresco dining areas.

Hackney

Hackney Council has brought forward its net zero commitment for its buildings and transport fleet forward to 2030, as it signs up to the UK100 climate network. UK100 is a network of local leaders who have pledged to lead a rapid transition to net zero – with clean air in their communities – ahead of the government’s legal target of 2050. The pledge will see the Council commit to decarbonising its non-tenanted buildings and its transport fleet by 2030, and it will continue to review this commitment to expand its scope over time.

Hammersmith & Fulham

Construction Enquirer reports that Hammersmith & Fulham council have appointed a contractor to deliver 134 new homes on the former site of Hartopp Point and Lannoy Point. The 1960s 14-storey towers on the Aintree Estate have been demolished and will be replaced by high-quality homes built to Passivhaus Classic Standards across three buildings ranging in height from three to seven storeys.

Islington

EG Radius reports that Arsenal Football Club subsidiary Ashburton Trading has won planning permission for an 284-storey student scheme next to the Emirates Stadium in North London. The 12-storey scheme at 45 Hornsey Road, N7 was designed by architects CZWG and will feature new landscaped public realm alongside flexible commercial floorspace at ground level.

Lambeth

London News Online reports that more than 10,000 letters have been sent to Lambeth council urging it to keep Brixton Academy open after the Met requested they close it down following a fatal crowd crush in December. The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) teamed up with the Save Our Scene campaign and the Brixton BID collective of local businesses, to launch the Campaign to Save Brixton Academy. Since the campaigns launch last Thursday, thousands of letters have been sent to Lambeth council and 100,000 music fans have signed a change.org petition to keep the Brixton Academy open. Each of these written representations will go towards a licensing review hearing for the venue which will take place at a later date.

Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea

The Financial Times reports that Kensington and Chelsea council’s pension fund is pouring hundreds of millions of pounds into commercial property in a controversial bet just as many global retirement funds offload or write down their real estate holdings. The £1.6bn scheme, located in the UK’s wealthiest borough, has so far spent about £150mn over the past year and a half on a range of property around the country, including the site of a Morrisons supermarket in Hampshire, a Travelodge hotel in York and the site of an Audi car showroom in Milton Keynes.

Southwark

Property Week reports that  Investment manager Downing has completed a £25m development loan on a scheme in Peckham, London. The project, which overlooks Peckham Rye Park and Common, consists of 91 residential units, including 59 for private sale and 32 for affordable housing and shared ownership. Parik Chandra, partner and head of specialist lending at Downing, said: “We are particularly pleased that the Peckham development will provide a mix of properties for private sale and affordable housing while substantially upgrading the existing development.

The Architect’s Journal reports that dRMM and McCloy + Muchemwa have been chosen to design the second phase of an estate regeneration in Old Kent Road, south London, following an invited competition. Southwark Council appointed the Stirling Prize-winner and the emerging AJ 40 under 40 to work on Phase 2 of the Tustin Estate redevelopment, which will deliver 246 homes and 340m2 commercial space for the local authority and developer Linkcity.

Construction Enquirer reports that  the London School of Economics is advancing plans to build a flagship halls of residence on London’s Bankside. It is understood to be planning to demolish existing Bankside House halls next to the Tate Modern gallery to make way for a larger complex.The university revealed the plan as it launched the hunt for a joint venture development partner to steer the plans for the £400m project.

Tower Hamlets

EG Radius reports that administrators have been appointed for 5 Churchill Place, E14, a 313,000 sqft office block on the Canary Wharf Estate. Restructuring firm FTI Consulting are expected to be appointed to oversee the administration of 5 Churchill Place Management Company Limited. The 12-storey building was bought by Cheung Kei Group, a Chinese property developer in 2017 for a reported £270 million.

EG Radius reports that Comic Relief has chosen Derwent London’s White Chapel Building, E1 as its new headquarters. The charity has signed for 5,000 sq ft in the 272,300 sq ft building. It is reported to have taken a 5-year lease.

General

Property Week reports that London is enjoying “a vote of confidence” with a record volume of office refurbishment schemes starting since records began in 2005, according to Deloitte’s Summer 2023 London Office Crane Survey. Delays in completion mean that over 10m sq ft is now projected to be delivered during 2023, with this year on track to catch up after several years of disruption.

EG reports that Landsec Chief Executive Mark Allan has welcomed Keir Starmer’s move to position Labour as the party of housebuilding and development ahead of a likely general election next year. Allan welcomed Starmer’s speech, delivered at the annual conference of the British Chambers of Commerce, stating “ We are pleased to see meaningful reform of the planning system and in particular the role of commercial and mixed-use development rising up the political agenda. We hope this marks the beginning of a meaningful discussion.”

The Telegraph reports that More than 150,000 homes could be built on the green belt under Labour plans, analysis has suggested. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to give local authorities more power to build on green belt land to meet local housing needs if his party wins at the next general election. Last week, he said he would change planning rules to give local areas the ability to build on car parks or “similar land” in the green belt which “doesn’t affect the beauty of our countryside”.

Property Week reports that Great Portland Estates chief executive Toby Courtauld has claimed a strong set of annual results after the group’s valuation losses were lower than at rivals Landsec and British Land. The claim comes despite a fall in net asset value of 9.3% and a fourfold increase in pre-tax losses to £130.6m during the year to the end of March, as outward yield shifts affected the commercial real estate market.