Residential developer Hub has launched HubCap, a new venture to deliver low-carbon urban living projects in UK cities.
HubCap has acquired its three first sites London’s Zone 1 and Edinburgh, with a combined total gross development value of circa £75m.
The two Edinburgh projects are a former whisky warehouse in Leith and printing press in New Town. The London site, on Ludgate Hill, EC4, was previously a bank.
HubCap’s focus initially will be on converting existing buildings into aparthotels and co-living spaces, while keeping carbon budgets low and optimising operational carbon savings.
The business plans to expand in 2023 with an active pipeline of projects in central London totalling £155m. Other UK cities that HubCap is exploring are Brighton, Bath, Cambridge, Glasgow, Manchester, Oxford and York.
The venture will be led by Miles Keeley, principal at Hub.
Keeley said: “HubCap is a hugely exciting prospect. We are primarily targeting sustainable conversions of urban commercial buildings that otherwise have a very limited, useful future life.
“Weak and changing occupational demand in certain sectors provides an opportunity for us to bring buildings back to life by repurposing them into alternative uses in greater demand.
“To assist in the success of our projects, we are partnering with best-in-class operators with high quality, design-led and sustainable operating solutions. We are seeing strong demand from investors in the kinds of low-carbon options we are pursuing with HupCap within the thriving short-stay living space.”
Robert Sloss, chief executive of Hub and HubCap, said: “We recognise that uses of some city centre buildings are going to change and our BTR experience has shown the desire of people to live in vibrant urban environments.
“With HubCap, we will deliver much-needed low-carbon, short-stay urban living solutions – reusing and retrofitting where possible. Finding more sustainable approaches to development is an important growth area, with retrofitting at its heart, and we are excited to be part of it.”
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