L&G has agreed a £100m deal with HUB to forward fund a 35-storey tower in the redevelopment of Taberner House in Croydon.
The 251-flat tower was earmarked for the rental market, while the three remaining blocks of the £200m, 513 home scheme will be for the for sale and affordable markets; 40%, or 205 flats, will be affordable.
The redevelopment of the former council HQ has been a long time in the making.
It was launched in 2014 by the Croydon Council Urban Regeneration Vehicle, a joint venture between John Laing and the council and which received planning for 420 homes. Some 230 of these were to go to Essential Living as a PRS tower while Places for People would have taken on the rest.
This arrangement fell apart when the council switched from Conservative to Labour and then Places for People pulled out. HUB took on the scheme in 2016 with funding from Bridges Fund Management.
It submitted revised plans in mid-2017, which upped unit numbers but also affordable percentages and it was sped through planning in just 11 weeks.
Construction on the scheme started this week, with completion planned for 2021.
The scheme is the second for L&G in London – with the investor already building 440 flats on Blackhorse Road in Walthamstow.
Its rental platform now has a pipeline of almost 2,000 homes with schemes in Bath, Manchester, Bristol and Leeds.
It aims to have 6,000 in planning, development or operation by the end of 2019. Funding comes from pension fund capital for its open-ended BTR fund alongside a £600m joint venture between Legal & General Capital and PGGM.
Savills advised HUB.
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