The company behind the hit video game series Grand Theft Auto is considering legal action over a real estate redevelopment that it says will block light at its nearby London headquarters.
Flower Island’s plans for the demolition and redevelopment of 52 Tottenham Street, W1, are back in front of Camden’s planning committee this Thursday (13 July), after New York-based Take-Two Interactive Software said a consultation was carried out improperly. Take-Two, which is the parent company of Grand Theft Auto creator Rockstar Games, added that the scheme will cause a loss of light for the roof terraces and rear windows at its neighbouring 30 Cleveland Street.
The scheme, which would see a five-storey block replaced with a new 11-storey office and residential building, was granted resolution for approval in August last year and received second-stage approval from the Greater London Authority in October. It would include a small amount of affordable workspace, above which would be three one-bedroom duplexes and one three-bedroom quadruplex.
However, a late objection from Take-Two, sent after the GLA approval, means the scheme will now be looked at afresh. Take-Two signed for 30 Cleveland Street in 2019 and moved in during 2021, in what Seb Belcher, the company’s general counsel for EMEA and APAC, described in an objection letter sent in November as “reflecting our confidence in London as an eminent location for offices and international businesses like ours”.
Belcher said Take-Two was unaware of the redevelopment until it had been approved and a pre-application consultation “took place during the height of the pandemic and its degrees of coronavirus restrictions”.
“The absence of direct contact with Take-Two over this period is conspicuous,” he added, noting that the scheme was approved without any consideration of its impact on Take-Two’s offices.
“Ultimately, LB Camden has resolved to grant a development which would substantially lower the quality of an existing office building, representing damage to its office stock directly contrary to the strategic objectives of local policy, which seeks to encourage, strengthen, improve and protect employment assets within LB Camden,” Belcher’s letter said.
“This has been allowed to happen as the most substantially impacted neighbour has not been adequately consulted, and the impacts on this neighbour have not been addressed in the relevant committee report or by the committee during discussion.”
Take-Two asked in its November letter for a new officer’s report to address these matters, an amended draft construction management plan for the redevelopment, amended noise limits and to be consulted on any further details.
“Further to the above and distinct to this objection we reserve the right to legally challenge the grant of consent if the proposal is unchanged, on the basis of inadequate consultation practices and a flawed committee report as well as any other matter of which we may become aware,” Belcher said. “We are writing to the Mayor’s office on the same basis, should they be drafting the GLA Stage 2 report currently.”
In an addendum to the August officer’s report published ahead of this week’s committee meeting, planning officer Laura Dorbeck said the “stakeholder meetings, public consultation events and workshops” held ahead of the original planning meeting “are considered efficient”.
The report added that Flower Island’s daylight surveyor, Point 2 Surveyors, has now submitted an addendum to its original daylight and sunlight report specifically looking at the impact on 30 Cleveland Street, “noting that it is not standard practice to assess the internal daylighting conditions to office accommodation”. Take-Two has since objected again, providing its own overshadowing analysis from Schofield Surveyors.
“The harm to the amenity of office workers is… given some minor weight in the overall assessment of the development; however, the planning benefits brought forward by the scheme as outlined in the officer committee report are still considered to outweigh the harm to the neighbouring office building,” Dorbeck’s report said.
The scheme is recommended for approval on 13 July.
To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@eg.co.uk or chante.bohitige@eg.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke, @bohitige or @EGPropertyNews
See which agents are doing the most deals in the London submarkets with our On-Demand Rankings >>
