A prime London site that has lain dormant for more than a decade looks set to get new high-rise development at the third attempt.
The first application to build on the site at 20 Blackfriars was submitted in 2002 but knocked back after a public enquiry. Seven years later the recession killed off an enlarged mixed-use development on the plot on the south bank of the River Thames and which has since become known as the Better Bankside business district.
Now, after the Malaysian real estate investment trust IGB Corporation snapped up the site in a £115m deal, it has teamed up with European family trust Tower Ray to form the joint venture developer Black Pearl.
A spokesman for IGB explained the partnership was “confident” the scheme would go ahead, although it intends to alter some elements of the existing permission and resubmit the plans late this year or early next.
IGB Corporation is a global residential, retail and office developer headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and reportedly holding £1.3bn in assets. Using its £626m of capitalisation it tried to buy Market Towers in Nine Elms in June last year, but lost out to Chinese developer Dalian Wanda Group.
As part of the acquisition agreement Black Pearl will settle the £65m of National Asset Management Agency-controlled debt associated with the site, assume a further £49.3m of loans and make a £10m payment to Blackfriars Ltd, the vehicle that owns the site.
The joint venture was formed in June last year to invest in UK property. It has already hinted it intends to seek out additional prime site deals in London and in the regions once the Blackfriars project is underway.
The first twin tower scheme was drawn up by architects Wilkinson Eyre for a 23-storey office block and neighbouring 42-storey residential tower. In July, 2007, Land Securities sold on the site and planning permission to Israeli David Hackmey’s Circleplane, for £90m. At the time he said: “We are excited to become involved in the regeneration of Southwark and want to work with the community and be good neighbours.”
A year later the project was called in by then secretary of state Hazel Blears to assess the “appropriateness” of tall buildings on the South Bank and eventually approved. By now the recession was beginning to bite and the project collapsed.
If allowed to go ahead the latest scheme would complete a quadrant of developments at the crossroads of Stamford Street and Blackfriars Road where new high-rise schemes have already been approved or are nearing completion on the other three corners of what is fast becoming one of the most tightly packed areas of the capital.
The Carlyle Group’s 1.4m sq ft Sampson and Ludgate House site — offered for sale last month — occupies one corner, with Great Portland Estates’ 19-storey office scheme at 240 Blackfriars on another. Number 1 Blackfriars on the third corner is destined for Berkeley’s 170-metre, 52-storey, residential and retail skyscraper.
