A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs

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City of London

Estates Gazette reports that Shravan Joshi has been named the new chair of the City of London Corporation’s Planning and Transportation Committee. Joshi ran against fellow committee member Marianne Fredericks, receiving 18 votes to Fredericks’ eight in the committee meeting held on 26 April. Joshi said he was grateful for “the trust” of his committee members, adding in a statement following the meeting: “We currently have a unique opportunity to shape the Square Mile’s built environment around the emergence from lockdown, while holding firm on delivery of our climate action and transport strategies.” A former investment banker, Joshi worked in the energy sector from 1999 and now advises energy technology companies. He has served as a member of the City of London Corporation for four years, including a stint as deputy chairman of the Property Investment Board. Joshi takes the reins from Alastair Moss, who will now serve as deputy chair for the next 12 months.

The City has announced that a collaborative design team led by architects Allies and Morrison and Asif Khan Studio, has been selected to deliver a multi-million-pound renewal of the Barbican Centre. The winning team, chosen from a five-team shortlist, also includes engineering and sustainability consultancy, Buro Happold; heritage experts from Alan Baxter Ltd; theatre, acoustic, and digital consultancy, Charcoalblue; landscape architects, Hood Design Studio, lighting design agency, les éclaireurs, and artistic advisors Isaac Julien and Nadia Fall.

Kensington & Chelsea

City A.M. reports the banker running the sale of Chelsea FC says the club would be a bargain even if it fetches £2.5bn, a record price for a sports team. Joe Ravitch, co-founder of US bank the Raine Group, said he expected Premier League clubs to be worth several times more very soon.“My guess is that Chelsea and all of the top Premier League clubs will probably be worth in excess of $10bn (£8bn) in five years,” he told the FT. “So I think whoever buys Chelsea today at the prices we’re talking about is getting it for a steal.” It is not clear how Ravitch arrived at this figure, which has been seen in some circles as an attempt to drive up the price further. In a 2021 Forbes list of estimated values of sports teams, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys were ranked the highest, at $5.7bn (£4.5bn).

Tower Hamlets

Evening Standards reports on the 15-year project at Canada Water. Walking around the shops, restaurants and swanky offices (including the new Google HQ) in King’s Cross today, you’d have little inkling that 20 years ago the area was predominantly industrial and railway backlands with a reputation for drug dealing and sex work. Now, the man who oversaw that transformation has set his sights further east, on the former docklands of Canada Water. Roger Madelin is leading listed property developer British Land’s project to turn the quiet, residential area in the shadow of Canary Wharf — currently dominated by old industrial docks, post-war housing, a shopping centre and a car park — into London’s newest town centre. Work has started on the 15-year masterplan for a 53-acre urban hub, built in the nook of the river. British Land will deliver 3,000 new homes on the site. A 35-storey tower of 186 apartments will be built first, overlooking the central quay called Canada Water Dock (canadawater.co.uk/homes). These will be launched in the autumn with prices expected to start almost 20 per cent below the £791,141 average for a new build in Zone 2.

Wandsworth

Property Week reports that London purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) operator Urbanest has signed a £148m green loan with LaSalle to deliver an 852-bed development in Battersea, south London. The green loan will be used to secure a BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ certification for the scheme (pictured). It will also target a ‘classic’ Passivhaus standard, which measures the energy efficiency standards in residential property. Urbanest is set to deliver and manage 852 beds alongside 65,000 sq ft of office space, a business incubator, a café, a pub, community spaces and a landscaped public realm. Urbanest Battersea will be delivered for the academic year commencing September 2024 and is located on the boundary of the Battersea Design and Technology Quarter and adjacent to Battersea Power Station’s new northern line stop. An Urbanest spokesperson told Property Week to expect more green loan deals in the future, saying: “All of Urbanest’s schemes to date have been delivered to BREEAM ‘Excellent’ standard.

Property Week reports that LGIM Real Assets has secured £270m of green development financing to help fund its build-to-rent scheme in Wandsworth, south-west London. The money was secured through a banking consortium comprising HSBC, NatWest and Standard Chartered. HSBC and Standard Chartered acted as joint sustainability co-ordinators, while NatWest acted as documentation co-ordinator and agent. The green debt facility will be used to fund the development of the £500m scheme. The former B&Q and Homebase site forms one of Legal & General’s five BTR schemes in London and marks LGIM’s largest residential development to date. The scheme will deliver more than 1,000 homes, 35% of which will be affordable, and in excess of 60,000 sq ft of commercial space. Construction work is already under way, with the first homes ready for occupation in 2023. The funding is aligned to the Loan Market Association’s Green Loan Principles and is believed to be one of the largest sustainable finance deals in the housing sector to date.

Westminster

Estates Gazette reports that US investment banking firm Perella Weinberg is to leave its Mayfair headquarters in favour of a newly developed office in Fitzrovia, as a flurry of leasing activity among the West End’s financial occupiers continues apace. The firm’s London bankers will move to Derwent’s 80 Charlotte Street, W1, after exchanging on a 12-year lease for 30,000 sq ft. The move represents a significant increase in floorspace for Perella, which has been driven by a pandemic-induced surge in dealmaking and subsequent hiring spree. Last year, the boutique firm reported record turnover of $801.7m (£630m) across the group, up by 54% year-on-year. It will leave its existing premises at Fitzroy House in Mayfair, W1, later this year, where it has occupied 21,000 sq ft since 2006. It will pay about £85 per sq ft for the new base, which is one of just a handful of prime office schemes with that much space currently available in the West End. Separately, US investment house Marlin Equity Partners has signed a 10-year lease for more than 13,000 sq ft at One Newman Street, W1 – Great Portland Estates’ new office building.

Estates Gazette reports that the boss of property and retail lobby group the New West End Company is leaving the organisation later this year for a new role in Australia. Jace Tyrrell, who is Australian, has been chief executive of the business improvement district for six years. NWEC represents 600 retailers, hoteliers and property owners across Bond Street, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Mayfair. He will head Australia’s first business improvement district, the New Sydney Waterfront Company, from October. The group is part of a pilot by Sydney’s regional government. Tyrrell has overseen NWEC during a time of turbulence for Britain’s shopping Mecca, with the decline of bricks-andmortar retail, Brexit-related uncertainty and the Covid-19 pandemic all hitting the district’s landlords and occupiers hard. He has been an outspoken critic of the business rates system, Sunday trading hours limitations and policy decisions such as the abolition of tax-free shopping for tourists in the UK.

Property Week reports that Savills takes ‘overflow’ flex office space as West End HQ is refurbished. Savills has taken short-term office space near Tottenham Court Road for a small number of staff while it “refreshes” its London office headquarters at 33 Margaret Street. The surveying firm said that some areas of its headquarters needed improving in light of new post-lockdown working practices, and that its flexible office brand Workthere had sourced temporary workspace to relocate to while the refurbishment was under way. Workthere has signed a two-year licence to occupy one floor of 20 Rathbone Place, opposite Facebook’s London HQ, which Savills said would act as “overflow space”. At Margaret Street, Savills has enlisted its in-house commercial design team KKS Savills to examine how the amenity and informal space are used.

Property Week reports that private equity firm TDR Capital has expanded its operations in Marylebone, snapping up six floors of a recently refurbished office building. TDR has occupied 22,000 sq ft across four floors of 20 Bentinck Street for the past 10 years and is expanding its operations, adding the neighbouring Four Bentinck Street to its office footprint. Both buildings are owned by the Howard de Walden Estate. The newly leased 11,965 sq ft boutique building was recently restored by architects Hale Brown, adding open-plan space, two terraces, an outdoor breakout space as well as other amenities. The building also features two wildflower green roofs and a ground source heat pump. Paul Bakker, property and asset management director at the Howard de Walden estate, said: “TDR’s expansion within the estate highlights that, as we move back to a more normal way of life following the end of pandemic restrictions, demand for office space remains high as both employers and employees realise the value in returning to the workplace.

Property Week reports that Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of the New West End Company (NWEC), is leaving the company in October to head Australia’s first Business Improvement District (BID),The New Sydney Waterfront Company. The native Australian will move back to lead redevelopment of Sydney’s Western Harbour Precinct, spanning 7km of waterfront, in a pilot scheme spearheaded by the New South Wales Government and the City of Sydney. In Tyrrell’s six years at the helm of NWEC, the company recorded the “most successful ballot results of any BID globally” and carried out multi-million-pound upgrades of Bond Street and Hanover Square Gardens.

Property Week reports that Shaftesbury’s portfolio value has risen to £3.26bn, increasing by 7.5% over the last six months in a post-pandemic boost for the company. The West End landlord said its estate’s valuation had been boosted by a 6.4% increase in like-for-like estimated rental value growth over the six months to March 31. The update said the figures reflected “improved trading conditions in the West End” thanks to the end of Covid-19 restrictions in the UK and “inbound tourism to London clearly recovering”. The 7.5% like-for-like increase in its valuation follows a 5.2% increase over the prior six months to 30 September 2021.

General

Property Week reports that The Crown Estate has launched a retail tender process for all its leasing agents across its London portfolio, Property Week understands. According to industry sources, The Crown Estate, which owns assets such as London’s Regent Street and St James, has made the move to support its new customer partnership team and the business more widely. JLL and CBRE are among agents that act on The Crown Estate’s 10m sq ft London portfolio. In March, Property Week revealed that Landsec was also looking to rationalise its roster of circa 30 retail agents to around six as part of a shake-up of how it leases its retail assets. Nik Porter, head of retail brand account management at Landsec, told Property Week at the time: “Following the successful launch of our new retail operating model, the next stage in our journey to becoming more customer-centric is to make sure we’re working with agencies that can best help us achieve our ambitions for retail.

Property Week reports that around £5bn was spent on London office assets over the first three months of the year, making it the largest amount transacted in a single quarter since Q3 2018, according to real estate firm Avison Young. In its Central London Office Analysis, Avison Young said Q1 investment was 40% up on the long-term quarterly average and more than double the amount spent in the same quarter last year. Avison Young said although occupier activity fell 8.7% against the long-term average for Q1 letting volumes, activity was 60% ahead of the amount of space let in the equivalent period of 2021. Chris Gore, principal, Central London investment at Avison Young, said: “The increasing optimism we saw across last year led to the best opening quarter since 2017 in terms of overall spending on London offices. “However, in spite of this bumper start to the year, it would be foolish not to sound a note of caution in the current macro environment. In particular, inflation and further interest rate rises could have a significant impact on investors considering development projects or who need financing to compete at current pricing levels.”

Property Week reports that the chief executive of Boxpark, Roger Wade, is stepping down from the role after 10 years. Wade has been at the helm of Boxpark since its inception in 2011. He will step down as CEO at the end of May 2022 and will assume his new position as brand consultant and non-executive director. The move follows last year’s sale of his majority stake in the business to mid-market private equity firm Lloyds Development Capital (LDC). Simon Champion, current managing director, will be appointed as CEO, who will work alongside COO Ben McLaughlin. Earlier this month, Boxpark announced its debut BoxHall concept, set to open in Bristol by early 2023, and a second site in Liverpool Street, with BoxHall City set to open in summer 2023. Roger Wade told Property Week: “It’s been a great ride over the past 10 years but it’s time to jump off and explore new opportunities. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me on this incredible journey but most of all I would like to thank my wonderful team and family for their support.

Property Week reports that rising building costs are expected to slow the construction of high-rise developments in London in the coming years, according to the findings of the New London Architecture (NLA) London Tall Buildings Survey, in partnership with Knight Frank. The survey found that rising costs and a disrupted supply chain as a result of multiple factors including the pandemic and environmental regulations mean completions of tall buildings will slow for the next three to four years. In 2021, 72 applications for tall buildings were submitted, down 13.3% on the previous year. Construction started on 29 tall buildings last year, higher than the number of development starts in 2020 but the second lowest figure since 2013. Some 109 tall-building developments are under way in the capital and the report suggests 41 could be completed by the end of the year. The survey also notes that developers of tall building have moved away from central London, with 88 such schemes currently in Zones 3 and 4, and 41 in Zone 5.

Property Week reports that Aron Samra, CBRE’s central London retail director, will join Colliers’ central London retail team this summer. Samra joined CBRE in 2014, working as a senior surveyor. He was later promoted to associate director and then director. During his time at CBRE, he focused largely on London’s west-end and city market, advising institutional and private investors. Paul Souber, co-head of UK & EMEA retail at Colliers, told Property Week: “We are very pleased to confirm that Aron will be joining our central London retail team this summer. “He brings with him a wealth of experience across the capital and particularly the London Estates. Aron will complement our market leading team of retail experts who have a significant presence in the market, representing the capital’s leading landlords and occupier clients.”

City A.M. reports that Exclusive: Millions of London tenants should brace themselves for rent increase of £1,000+ this year Millions of Londoners who currently rent in the capital face an increase in their housing costs of more than £1k this year. As energy bills climb and the cost of living crisis rages, London remains by far the least affordable region of the UK rental market, with the average tenant currently paying £21,140 per year. The capital’s tenants will see this cost increase by a further £1,140 per year over the next 12 months, according to rental platform Ocasa, which shared its new findings exclusively with City A.M. this morning.

City A.M. reports that Overseas executives flock back to London as the relocations market explodes. International business executives are flocking back to London, according to new data shared exclusively with City A.M. today, after the pandemic pushed many to return overseas. The return of bankers, investors and the sought have driven demand in the prime central London relocations market up 150 per cent in the first three months of this year, the latest figures from estate agents Winkworth revealed. Interest started to return in September last year, just after the UK lifted a raft of its Covid-19 restrictions but has accelerated as global travel restrictions ease.