Hammersmith & Fulham Council has ended a joint venture with Grainger and Helical Bar to redevelop the land around Hammersmith Town Hall, W6, nine years after they were chosen as development partners.
The pair have been notified that the agreement to develop the £150m King Street Campus, which would have included 200 flats, offices and a cinema, has been terminated by the council.
They were selected in 2008 to develop the 6.5-acre site, but since then no progress has been made on the scheme.
Originally, development was delayed due to the recession and complications around ownership.
A planning application for 320 homes was submitted at the end of 2010, before being withdrawn amid local opposition. A second application for 290 homes was withdrawn in 2013.
Permission was finally granted for a new scheme at the end of 2013 for 196 residential units, half of which would be affordable, a cinema, nearly 50,000 sq ft of office space, ground-floor retail and a new public space around the town hall.
However, the development was again thrown into doubt when Hammersmith & Fulham switched from a Conservative to a Labour council in 2014.
Labour had actively campaigned against the agreement, and said it would immediately review contentious developments.
It said in its manifesto: “We oppose the schemes for West Kensington and Gibbs Green Estates, Shepherds Bush Market, the new Town Hall offices, Sulivan School, Hammersmith Park and Riverside Studios/Mount Anvil. We aim to renegotiate these and halt the use of council powers such as compulsory purchase orders on any of them.”
Grainger and Helical are not the only companies to have seen their development plans change along with the leadership of the council.
U+I has gone back to the drawing board for the redevelopment of Shepherd Bush Market, after abandoning plans with Orion Land & Leisure for 212 flats and the redevelopment of the 140-unit market. It had received planning for the scheme but was locked in a legal dispute with local traders.
Stanhope had entered into a partnership to redevelop a number of estates across the borough in 15-year deal agreed in late 2013. However, when the council leadership changed, questions were raised about the amount of affordable housing being provided from the redevelopment and the profit this would generate for the company. Development had been in hiatus until just a few months ago, when the partnership got back under way.
Helical and Grainger’s arrangement with the council will formally come to an end at the end of the month. However, the pair still have land holdings in the area and may progress with another scheme, not including the council land.
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