Camden

Property Week reports that Clearbell Property Partners III has completed a £55m refinancing of The Kodak building in London’s Midtown. The fund, managed by Clearbell Capital, secured the financing from TIPS One, a fund managed by Tristan Capital Partners.The 70,000 sq ft grade II-listed building was originally built in 1911 for Kodak and was London’s first purpose-built open-plan office block with an ancillary lab and photographic rooms.

The Architects Journal reports that the unbuilt HS2 Euston terminal has already accrued £289 million in design fees despite remaining unbuilt. The status of the work, carried out by the Grimshaw, Arup and WSP team, is now up in the air as the government and HS2 Ltd reconsider their proposals for the high-speed rail link’s showpiece London terminus.

City of London

Property Week reports that London business improvement district (BID) Fleet Street Quarter has commissioned architectural practice Gensler to draw up a public realm improvement plan for its area, which covers 106 acres north of the Thames between Chancery Lane and St Paul’s. The BID’s chief executive, Lady Lucy French, told Property Week that Gensler is due to deliver its recommendations in October. Fleet Street Quarter said it expected to invest £12m to “stimulate, develop and influence” improvements to the area over the next five years.

Property Week reports that Landsec has agreed a renewed lease with international law firm Taylor Wessing for 175,000 sq ft of office space at 5 New Street Square, which will also see the City of London building extensively refurbished. Landsec said the refurbishment would create a reimagined, modernised London headquarters with minimal environmental impact, with the lease then beginning in 2025. The lease deal, for an undisclosed amount, sees Taylor Wessing up its space at 5 New Street Square from 166,000 sq ft previously to 175,000 sq ft, with sustainability centre to the law firm’s decision to remain at the property.

Construction Enquirer reports that London’s Fleet Street is set to be transformed over the next 5 years as developers shrug off recessionary fears to press ahead with a pipeline of 34 refurbishment and new build projects. The Western city fringe district is set to explode with new projects as an estimated 3m sq ft of new Grade A commercial space across office, retail and leisure is delivered. This will see an estimated £5bn worth of developments by 2028, according to a new report from the Fleet Street Quarter, the business improvement district representing over 359 businesses across a 43 hectare district.

City of Westminster

Property Week reports that Michael Gove has delayed his ruling on the proposed demolition of Oxford Street’s M&S flagship store until July 2023. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) confirmed “further time is required” to consider the proposed demolition and redevelopment of the property with a 10-floor retail and office block, with a decision now to be issued on or before 20 July.

Property Week reports that luxury goods firm Kering has agreed a lease worth a reported record UK rent of £13m a year for a new Saint Laurent store on London’s Bond Street. Kering, the French-based owner of Gucci, Balenciaga and other luxury retail brands, has agreed to take the six-storey retail store in London’s West End, market sources told The Sunday Times.

Hammersmith & Fulham

Property Week reports that Hammersmith’s famous Riverside Studios complex has been put on the market with Savills after being placed into administration last month due to rocketing energy costs and debt incurred by its recent redevelopment.Richard Lewis, Alistair Wardell and Oliver Haunch of Grant Thornton UK LLP, administrators for charity owner Riverside Trust are looking to sell the building for an undisclosed amount after the complex struggled to rebuild revenues post-pandemic. The venue reopened in November 2019, shortly before the first Covid-19 closures, having been closed for redevelopment since 2014.

Southwark

The Architects Journal reports that HawkinsBrown and British Land have revealed fresh plans for their overhaul of Canada Water Printworks. The scheme involves converting the space used by the Printworks nightclub since 2017 into offices. But the new details, teased on Wednesday (26 April) by the Canada Water development team, hint at the possibility of retaining the club as part of a new ‘cultural’ offering in the back end of the building’s former press hallsBritish Land first unveiled designs for the site in late 2021, but the development team, which also includes pension giant Australian Super, has now come back with a tweaked proposal which will be the subject of a fresh planning application later this year. Other new details include the naming of the redeveloped printworks as The Grand Press. Hawkins\Brown will retrofit and extend the building, which will comprise 14,777m² of Grade A workspace across seven floors with the press halls retained as an atrium.

Tower Hamlets

Property Week reports that The Zeloof family, owner of the Truman Brewery Estate, has welcomed the portfolio of businesses owned by Dragons’ Den Star Steven Bartlett as tenants at its 17 Hanbury Street building in Spitalfields, east London, which forms part of the estate. Bartlett’s businesses, which includes marketing and communications firm Flight Story, are taking all 11,000 sq ft of the building for 10 years with a five-year break option, following the departure of design agency Wieden + Kennedy.

General

Property Week reports that the Hill Group said it was on track to deliver a £315m land bank of over 12,000 homes, representing £4.6bn of future income, as it announced record profits in its financial results for 2022. The land bank represents a balance sheet of £322m, together with net cash of £132m. According to the housebuilder, the timescales for delivery are around seven years, and the delivery rate is going to plan.