by Derek Penfold
The Whiteleys department store in Queensway has at last been sold by Hanson Trust (who acquired it when they took over UDS), after years of dithering by UDS and Hanson over who should build what. Planning interventions by Westminster council and the GLC have not helped in the delays, but now it will be for the new owners to show some progress.
Before Christmas, market rumours of contenders for the listed building ranged from Terence Conran, through Heron and Rosehaugh, to Julian Markham’s Glengate and his new-found Japanese contractor partner Kumagai Gumi, London Land and, the eventual winner, Arlington Securities, best-known for a string of successes with business park developments.
For a scheme which is said to be going to be worth £60m or more when completed, this week’s announcement was distinctly low-key, given all the development’s history and the status of both vendor and purchasers.
Arlington’s heavyweight partners, and project managers for the group, are London & Metropolitan Estates — the joint company of London & Edinburgh Trust and the contractor subsidiary of BICC, Balfour Beatty. A third party in the freehold acquisition are “leading Far East developers”.
The Far Easterners, suggested by market gossip to be Malaysian, are not being identified by Arlington and L&ME because their name “would not mean anything here”, although they are prominent in their own territory.
The development team was “brought together” by Wilverley & Hampshire Estates and they will also be involved in the consortium.
The consortium will not comment on purchase price — perhaps at the request of Hanson, rather than its own wishes — but rumours have put the figure as high as £16m. Nearer £15m may be closer, though.
Just what details the plans have are also rather sketchy — 250,000 sq ft of offices and a “high-quality residential element”, which could be 12 to 20 flats. Parking, a crucial element for this location, is put at 266 spaces and the consortium says these will be strictly for the shoppers.
The design team is to be announced shortly, but it is thought designs will at least be based on an extant scheme by Building Design Partnership.
Healey & Baker and Morgan Grenfell Laurie have been advising Hanson, and the new owners will be using Healey & Baker and Jones Lang Wootton as letting agents.
L&ME chief executive David Lewis points out they are no strangers to retail development — with 200,000 sq ft in Bracknell and smaller schemes in Edinburgh, Ramsgate and Irvine, 120,000 sq ft with Caltrust in Ayr, 130,000 sq ft on the brewery site in Reigate and being on the shortlist for Bromley.
Ray Mould of Arlington joked: “We freely admit we don’t know a lot about retailing, which is why we thought we would cut our teeth on a small one.” It is understood that Arlington brought L&ME into the consortium only about a month or so ago; previously L&ME had also looked at the scheme on their own.
The four-part consortium is likely to be looking for institutional funding as the scheme progresses.
