Sugar House offers tasty prospect

  A 13-acre residential development opportunity opposite the Olympic Park in east London is to come to market after being placed in the hands of LPA Receivers.   CB Richard Ellis has taken control of the land, which comprises a series of redundant industrial warehouses in Sugar House Lane, E15, on behalf of lender Royal Bank of Scotland.   The agent will market the site as being suitable for the development of 1,500 houses, plus offices and warehousing aimed at the creative and film industries.   The site – between the VIP entrance to the 500-acre Olympic Park on Pudding Mill Lane and Stratford High Street, and the London Development Agency’s 3 Mills Lane Film Studios – was bought by private developer Cleveland in 2004 via a series of RBS-backed acquisitions.   Cleveland had been working up a masterplan for the site with housing associations East Thames Group and Southern Housing.   However, those plans failed to come to fruition, and the site was designated a conservation area in 2008.   The site is a key strategic location as it sits to the north of the LDA’s own holdings on Sugar House Lane, which form part of the 500-acre Olympic Legacy Masterplan Framework being drawn up by the Olympic Park Legacy Vehicle.   The LDA and the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation have been separately working with Urban Practitioners and Stephen Taylor architects on a mixed-use framework for the Three Mills Studios, Sugar House Lane and Hunts Lane area of the Lower Lea Valley.   Plans to relocate 3 Mills Studios, London’s largest film and TV studios, off the site to the International Broadcast Centre in Hackney Wick would unlock a major development opportunity.   Cleveland could not be reached for comment.   paul.norman@egi.co.uk