Rishi Sachdev’s Shiva Hotels business has emerged as the front-runner to buy the car park at 74-77 Welbeck Street, W1, for more than £100m.
It is the latest in a spate of car park redevelopments in central London – in the past five years there have been 56 planning applications made for the conversion of car parking space in inner London, according to the EGi database.
Soaring values in W1 for both offices and residential, coupled with the opening of the nearby Bond Street Crossrail station in 2018, have driven car park owners to cash in on opportunities for conversion of their assets to alternative uses.
Shiva’s plans will see a new boutique hotel in a prime location just off Oxford Street.
It is buying the site from LaSalle Investment Management and initial proposals by architects Sheppard Robson show that the site could accommodate a 145-bedroom hotel.
The NCP-operated car park was put up for sale through JLL in August last year with a £75m price tag. It also includes ground floor space let to burger restaurant MeatLiquor and lap dancing club SophistiCats.
Shiva Hotels, which was founded in 2003 by Sachdev, a former derivatives trader with Lehman Brothers, is realigning its hotel business to focus on the luxury boutique market.
It began this process at the end of last year by putting up for sale its Hilton-branded London assets, with a combined value of around £260m.
The assets in the 1,100-bedroom sell-off include two Hampton by Hilton hotels, at Waterloo, SE1, and Gatwick Airport, plus the DoubleTree by Hilton at London ExCel, E16, and the Hilton London Heathrow Terminal 5.
JLL and Eastdil Secured are marketing the assets. It is understood that cash generated from the sales will be reinvested into its development pipeline.
In June last year Shiva bought the Marlborough Yard site on Poland Street from Amazon Property in a £55m deal, where it is also planning a 150-bedroom boutique hotel.
Shiva has more than 2,000 bedrooms either operational or under development in London, and has four additional boutique assets in the pipeline including the 170-bedroom Kingsway Hall Hotel in Covent Garden, WC2; 51-bedroom Vandon House in Buckingham Gate, Victoria, SW1; Morley House on Holborn Viaduct, WC1; and Millennium Bridge House, EC4 – a 348-bedroom scheme currently under development.
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