King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership has been appointed development partner for St Pancras Hospital – a five acre parcel of land behind St Pancras International Station.
The partnership, a joint venture between Australian pension fund AustralianSuper alongside UK property developer Argent, and Hermes Investment Management on behalf of the BT Pension Scheme, has been selected by Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust.
KCCLP, which already owns 67 acres in King’s Cross, will undertake and oversee the development of the site. The Trust will remain “a flagship presence” on the site, and will retain the freehold.
The Trust has previously said the site could accommodate another 760,000 sq ft of space in a mixed-use scheme.
The site currently consists of 19 buildings with 250,000 sq ft of accommodation. A “certificate of immunity” protecting the site from listing applies across all the heritage buildings.
The Trust is planning to move its existing inpatient services from St Pancras to a site behind the Whittington Hospital, but retain other clinics, offices and research facilities at St Pancras.
It said revenue from the site will allow it to reinvest the money in new clinical and healthcare facilities.
Angela McNab, chief executive of the Trust, said: “The appointment of KCCLP is a huge and significant step forward, and will enable the transformation of the Trust’s estate. It has been a rigorous process to identify the right partner for this hugely important part of the work, but we believe the choice of KCCLP will enable us to get the very best out of this site, including clinical services, commercial space and private and affordable homes.”
Robert Evans, partner of Argent and chief executive of the King’s Cross Estate, added: “We are hugely excited by the potential of our partnership with the Trust and others; the development potential of this site; and the potential synergies with our existing King’s Cross Estate.”
The news follows lengthy delays after the contract notice for the site was published in July 2018. The preferred tender was supposed to be finalised in July 2019, according to the procurement schedule.
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