A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs

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Camden

The Global Railway Review reports that work to build the HS2 London terminus at Euston has taken a major step forward with the Mace Dragados joint venture moving onto the construction site adjacent to Euston station to begin work on the new high-speed station in central London. Mace Dragados were appointed as HS2’s Construction Partner for Euston Station in March 2019 and have been working closely with HS2 to prepare for the early works. The new station will provide much needed capacity at Euston station, doubling the number of peak time seats available on Britain’s new rail network. A new concourse is being built, platforms for the low-carbon, high-speed trains and improved connections to Euston and Euston Square Underground stations.

City of London 

Property Week reports that a joint venture (JV) between Helical and Ashby Capital has secured a £140m facility from Allianz to finance the development of 33 Charterhouse Street in central London. The four-year facility has the option to extend to a fifth year and it is anticipated that the first drawdown will be in the third quarter this year. Acquired by the JV in 2019, 33 Charterhouse Street has planning permission for the development of around 200,000 sq ft of office space. The JV has also exercised the option under the development agreement with the City of London to secure a new 150-year lease

EG reports that JTRE has acquired 60 Aldgate from 4C Hotels and TfL for a sum understood to be more than £40m. The Aldgate development site has permission for a 14-storey office and JTRE triumphed over other bidders such as Nuveen and Great Portland Estates.

Property Week reports JLL is under offer for 132,000 sq ft at British Land’s 1 Broadgate for its new London headquarters. The agency started its search for a new London office in October 2017, when it announced plans to consolidate its West End, City of London and Canary Wharf offices under one roof.

City of Westminster 

EG reports Travelex founder Sir Lloyd Dorfman has exchanged contracts to buy 2 and 4 Soho Place from Derwent London. He is paying £40.5m for the 150-year leasehold interest for the building, which comprises 18,400 sq ft and a theatre.

Bloomberg reports that the developer of luxury apartments opposite Buckingham Palace is hoping it can defy predictions of a slump in upmarket London properties. Northacre Plc — which is developing No. 1 Palace St in St. James’ Park and The Broadway in Westminster – has seen inquiries surge almost threefold in the first half compared with a year earlier, Mustafa Kheriba, a director at the London-based company, said in an interview. “The global pandemic will only increase demand,” said Kheriba who’s also deputy chief executive officer and head of asset and wealth management at Dubai’s Shuaa Capital PSC. “This coupled with the changing environment for property development, with a shrinking workforce following Britain’s exit from Europe will impact the availability of stock which in turn will limit stock and push up demand.”

City AM reports that Great Portland Estates received only 28 per cent of rent due last month from those in its retail, leisure and hospitality spaces, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to weigh on the economy. The West End landlord collected 74 per cent of the rent due from office locations in the three months to June, utilising rent deposits and bank guarantees to help recover some of the outstanding shortfall.’Including such deposits, it added that it has now collected 82 per cent of March rent.

Hackney

Architects Journal reports that construction has finally started on Sam Jacob Studio’s plans to redevelop the site of a former pub in Shoreditch, east London, into a family centre and a home. The four-storey scheme restores the last remaining piece of what was once a terraced street razed to the ground by bombing during the Second World War. Work is expected to complete in August 2021.

EG reports that Hackney Council has approved plans from Summix for a 22-storey hotel on the Dial-A-Cab site near the Old Street Roundabout. the developer acquired the site for £23.3m.

Hammersmith & Fulham

Property Week reports that Berkeley Group developer St James has received planning permission to redevelop Centre House in London’s White City into a 527-home scheme. The Centre House scheme would form part of St James’ 10-acre White City Living regeneration scheme, which would deliver over 2,300 homes. It would comprise 185 affordable homes allocated to Imperial College London staff and other key workers, a 22-storey and a 32-storey tower and 10,000 sq ft of commercial space for Imperial College London. St James hopes work will start on site in late autumn this year and the first homes will be completed by 2024.

Islington

The Islington Gazette reports that Peabody has extended its consultation on plans for the Holloway Prison site until the end of the month, after housing campaigners complained many potential participants might not have been able to contribute because of coronavirus lockdown. The housing association’s initial three-week consultation on proposals to build up to 1,050 new homes in a car-free development on the former prison site in Parkhurst Road began on June 12. Peabody, which received a £42m loan from the Mayor of London to buy the site for £81.5m off the Ministry of Justice, has mooted plans for 60pc affordable homes – but this is includes shared ownership housing, and London affordable rent levels which are based on 2016 social rent levels

Kensington

My London News reports that residents are railing against proposals to build “modernist” offices and 50 flats as part of a wider redevelopment of South Kensington London Underground station. A joint venture between TfL and developer Native Land hopes to build a new office building and a four-storey row of flats and shops on a derelict strip of land along Pelham Street, a conservation area. It will complement a planning application that TfL won approval for in 2018, to revamp the grade II-listed station’s platforms and ticket hall that millions of museum visitors pass through each year. Dozens of the street’s residents, and others from nearby, argue the new scheme won’t suit the architecture of their Victorian and Georgian homes, and will create an “enclosed chasm”.

Southwark

Inside Housing reports that Southwark Council is set to convert an additional 280 homes on the Aylesbury Estate regeneration project to social rent as part of a deal struck with Notting Hill Genesis (NHG). Under the new agreement, the council will fund the delivery of the 581 homes at an estimated cost of £193m. However, the council expects to secure roughly £54.5m in grant from the Greater London Authority towards these costs. In 2014, Southwark Council signed a £1.5bn deal with NHG to carry out the 18-year regeneration of the Aylesbury Estate

Tower Hamlets

EG reports a planning application has been lodged with Tower Hamlets for a 32-storey residential tower on the Isle of Dogs. It proposes 209 flats with 17,000 sqft of commercial office space across three buildings of 9, 17 and 32 storeys. The developer is 3TQ, a SPV for the development backed by a private investor.

Property Week reports that developer Aitch Group has secured a £24m funding package from Paragon Bank to complete its mixed-used development in Bethnal Green, east London. The Empress Works development in Bethnal Green comprises 58 units and 6,990 sq ft ground floor retail space. The bank previously provided £34m to the developer for its 103-unit project in Hackney Wick, London.

The Evening Standard reports that the Canary Wharf Group has lodged plans for a large new development in the financial district, with up to 2.5 million square feet of offices proposed, despite the popularity of the ‘work from home’ model. The property firm, owned by Canada’s Brookfield, and Qatar Investment Authority, wants to create a new scheme at North Quay, the largest undeveloped site remaining at Canary Wharf. The planned project, up to eight buildings potentially and next to the new Crossrail station, would have mostly office space, as well as some 700 apartments.

General 

The Mayor of London has provisionally scheduled seven virtual representation hearings in line with the below set of dates. It should be noted that these dates are provisional only and are not yet to be formally confirmed. Hearing dates will be confirmed 21 days prior to the hearings in line with the Mayor’s amended Representation Hearings Procedure to be published shortly.

• Thameside West – 5 August at 10:00
• Former Master Brewer Site – 27 August at 13.30
• Homebase, Manor Road – 1 October at 13.30
• Kensington Forum Hotel – 22 October at 13.30
• 5 Kingdom Street – 29 October at 13.30
• Bishopsgate Goodsyard – 12 November at 13.30
• Former Stag Brewery – 26 November at 13.30

OnLondon reports that the London Plan is now again waiting for government approval , the London Assembly heard earlier this week. It comes more than seven months after Sadiq Khan submitted what was intended to be the definitive version of the planning and development blueprint for the capital but was aksed to go back to the drawing board by Robert Jenrick (Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government) who directed Khan to make 11 specific amendments in early-March. Following discussion with Whitehall officials City Hall had now come back with suggested changes to five of the proposed amendments – fewer than 20 changes of wording in all to be agreed, Khan’s deputy mayor for planning Jules Pipe told the London Assembly’s regeneration committee. “It’s still an ongoing process. We have made our submissions. We are now waiting for the secretary of state to agree the changes or not,” he said. “We are still to hear back.”