Lothbury Investment Management is poised to agree a deal to forward fund one of the largest developments of privately rented homes in Scotland.
The fund manager is under offer to buy the £120m PRS element of EDI Group’s Fountainbridge redevelopment in Edinburgh.
It will fund the 300-home residential element of the 687,000 sq ft project which will occupy the 8.2-acre India Quay site. The site was previously
earmarked as the Bank of Scotland’s headquarters.
EDI, an arm’s length development company set up by the city of Edinburgh council to build Edinburgh Park in the late 1980s, bought the site from Lloyds for £15m in 2011.
Its mixed-use scheme includes offices, shops and a hotel as well as rental homes.
The deal would be the second major PRS scheme in Edinburgh, following Grosvenor’s decision to develop the next 400-home phase of its Springside scheme in Fountainbridge as rental housing. That decision followed a trial in the first phase which saw a handful of homes retained for rent.
It submitted planning for the PRS phase earlier this year.
It would also be Lothbury’s second major PRS deal in the UK, following its debut acquisition in September of the £160m Kampus development in Manchester, which will include 475 homes for rent.
The push into PRS follows Lothbury’s appointment of Tim Phillips in July as a senior fund manager and director.
At the time of his appointment Phillips said the company planned to invest at least £500m into UK PRS.
Phillips was previously director of land acquisitions at the Bozzuto Group, a US real estate development and construction company based in Washington.
CBRE is advising EDI.
