Mike Ashley, the founder of Sports Direct, is behind plans to build a £900m scheme near Chelsea’s King’s Road.
Citygrove and McLaren Properties bought the development site, a former storage depot called The Clearings, from John Lewis last night for £200m.
But the cash – £160m for the site and £40m to relocate the nearby Marlborough primary school – is understood to have come from Ashley’s MASH Holdings.
Sunday Times Business, 1