Johnny Sandelson’s Westbourne Capital Partners has agreed a deal to buy a long-stalled prime London residential development site from NAMA in St John’s Wood by Lord’s cricket ground, NW8.
Westbourne has exchanged contracts to buy The Landseer for around £60m. The 1.5-acre site has consent for 132 flats tolling 143,246 sq ft, including a 10-storey tower fronting on to St John’s Wood Road. The deal is due to complete later this summer.
It is understood the purchaser is unlikely to implement the current consent and is exploring a variety of options, including student housing. The development will not, however, include an Auriens-operated element, the luxury later-living concept established by Sandelson.
It is the second high-profile land site Sandelson has made in recent months. In May he secured a deal to buy King’s Gardens in Kensington, W8, from the Jesuits for £110m.
Later that month he told EG: “I think there’s a gap in the market for someone like me now where, post-Brexit, nobody really knows what the rules are and funds around the world, because of the uncertainty, aren’t committing the right level of resources.”
The St John’s Wood site was formally put up for sale in February through CBRE.
Last November, David Oprey and Richard Toone from insolvency and restructuring firm CVR Global were appointed joint administrators and fixed charged receivers of The Landseer’s holding companies 36 St John’s Wood Road Ltd and also 36-44 Lodge Road Ltd.
The Landseer was previously controlled by Marcus Cooper, Anthony Lyons and Simon Conway. Other companies associated with them, including Matterhorn Capital Group and Matterhorn Capital St John’s Wood, are not subject to any receivership or insolvency processes.
Cooper, Lyons and Conway purchased the Landseer site around 10 years ago for close to £20m. NAMA, alongside the trio, will be able to share in some profit from the sale to Sandelson.
At the time of the receivership appointment, Oprey said: “Over the past two to three years, attempts have been made to move forward with developing the site and have reached various stages, only to fall at the final hurdle.
“Our appointments have come as a result of the asset managers deciding to take a new approach to bringing the development forward.”
The site had previously been marketed for as much as £100m when the market for London residential development sites was at its strongest around three years ago.
Despite the site achieving a price substantially off the figure that it had once been marketed for, the deal is a further sign of some growing confidence in the London residential development market.
Yesterday, Dalian Wanda agreed a deal to buy the £470m Nine Elms Square, SW8, from St Modwen and VINCI and, this morning, EG revealed Taylor Wimpey has agreed to buy Mount Pleasant in Farringdon, EC1, for around £200m.
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