Big Yellow submits plans for residential with self-storage

Big Yellow Self Storage has submitted plans to redevelop its York Road site in Battersea, SW11. The self-storage specialist plans to replace the current 50,000 sq ft facility with a new store double the size. Proposals also include 168 new homes, including 35% affordable, in buildings of up to 20 storeys. Ground-floor retail units, offices and artist studios, which are to be gifted to an occupier and operated as a community benefit, are also planned. Simon Allen, head of development at Big Yellow Self Storage, said: “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to secure consents in London for storage-only developments. In the future we need to be more creative to secure consents, which will involve a mix of uses, including residential.” Big Yellow acquired the site for £23m in December 2014, which incorporates the adjoining Halfords and Pets at Home stores within the same retail park. Control of the adjoining land has resulted in the new scheme being made possible. Expansion plans In its latest year-end results, Big Yellow said: “We continue to look for land and existing storage centres in large urban conurbations, with a focus on London and the South East.” “Developing stores in these areas remains challenging given the competition for land, an increasingly long, expensive and complex planning process, and the understandable pressure to produce more housing. “We believe that by owning a predominantly freehold estate we are insulating ourselves against adverse rent reviews and in the long term possible redevelopment of key stores by the landlord.” The self-storage provider currently has a pipeline of 10 freehold development opportunities and is looking to expand that, with a view to growing the Big Yellow platform to 100 stores. It has 74 largely freehold, purpose-built, self-storage facilities, with another seven under development. The portfolio measures around 5.6m sq ft and serves around 55,000 customers. Big Yellow is soon to submit plans for sites in, King’s Cross, Bracknell, Slough, Uxbridge, Hove and Newcastle. A site in Wapping is soon to open, another in Camberwell will start construction in November, and a Manchester site will open in spring 2019. From the archive: Surprises in store for self-storage in London Access Self Storage is another developer and operator looking at residential options. Around a year ago, it received planning consent from Lambeth’s planning committee for a new 90,000 sq ft self-storage facility in a three storey basement with 63 build-to-rent homes above. However, the application has since been withdrawn, with the developer understood to be reverting back to the original plan of self-storage as the sole use for the site. Contrary to that example in Redbridge, it has acquired two sites in Ilford where it plans residential, without self-storage. One site, a stone’s throw from the new Crossrail station, proposes a 42-storey tower with 380 private rented homes, while another 1.4km to the west proposes off-site affordable housing. Access is owned by Precis Management Services, which owns the Shaftesbury and Montcalm hotel brands. Drawing on this expertise in hospitality and the hotels sector, it is expected Access will develop and manage the rental homes itself. These latest twists, however, give rise to the fear that combining other use classes with residential, a key driver in the GLA’s growth policy around density and intensification, isn’t so straightforward. To send feedback e-mail paul.wellman@egi.co.uk or tweet @paulwellman eg or @estatesgazette