Quintain is “actively” seeking fresh London development opportunities, having appointed Stanhope’s Jason Margrave as executive director of development to spearhead a new growth push.
The Wembley Park developer, which has been downsizing and simplifying its portfolio since Lone Star took the company private in 2015, said it could double the size of its development pipeline over the next five to seven years – in anticipation of the private equity firm’s probable sale of the company.
Margrave, who joined last week after 11 years at Stanhope and before that, Chelsfield, said he would be actively targeting sites in zones one to five with enough scale to provide 1,000 or more residential units. This would predominantly involve bidding for publicly-owned land.
The company’s Private Rented Sector brand, Tipi, which is centred on its flagship 85-acre Wembley Park scheme, would likely take on the residential units and manage them long term.
Speaking to EG in his first interview since taking on the role, Margrave said that with most of Wembley Park due to be completed within the next four years, his key role at the company would be to replenish Quintain’s development pipeline.
He said: “My role looking beyond Wembley is to build up the pipeline and the portfolio: where does the next Wembley come from?
“In pure mixed-use place making we’ve got fantastic experience, and my job is now to harness that skillset – to put us up there with the Lendleases, the Argents and Stanhopes.
“We want to showcase what we’ve done at Wembley and actually say ‘Can we come to your borough, and do the same for you?’”
Margrave said that Lone Star had capital to invest in a future pipeline of projects. Under its investment criteria, Lone Star is not expected to retain ownership of Quintain in the long-term, with a sale expected in the next 3-4 years. Margrave said this could involve a wholesale disposal of the company, or the disposal of Wembley Park, with Lone Star then retaining some of the skill set and experience it has accumulated in order to apply these to future developments.
Margrave said: “Lone Star is keen to grow Quintain. There is no upper limit [to the potential size of the pipeline]. But we’re in growth mode.
“We haven’t really set ourselves an upper target. We have 8,000 units at Wembley and it would be good to think that over the next 5-7 years we could build up a pipeline of that scale outside Wembley.”
The company has delivered 1,000 units to date at Wembley Park, and has planning permission for 3,000 units, all of which will be owned and managed under the Tipi brand.
It has 250,000 sq ft of retail across the ground floor space at the scheme, which it will launch to the market for occupiers next year.
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