Deal strengthens Strawberry Star Group’s volume housing vision of delivering 4,000 homes by 2025

London, 4th April 2019: EPISO, an opportunity fund advised by Tristan Capital Partners, in partnership with Addington Capital, have sold a mixed-use 4.5-acre site with consent for residential 447 units to Strawberry Star Homes for a price in excess of £15 million. The site is alongside the joint venture partners’ Harvey Shopping Centre in Harlow.

Addington secured planning permission for the site, which was previously a shopping mall, to create a mixed-use regeneration scheme. The plans include four new standalone blocks, which provide 447 residential units and around 40,000 sq. ft. of retail space, together with below podium car parking. Above the podium there are planned landscaped private amenity areas.

London based property company Strawberry Star Group’s volume house building division Strawberry Star Homes will build out the site which is expected to have a GDV of £244m.

Jeremy Bullock, Director at Tristan Capital Partners, said: “We saw a real potential to transform this part of the town which had long needed investment by creating nearly 450 new residential homes in an attractive setting. Addington and Tristan have been early movers in the repurposing of underperforming shopping centre space and with the shortage of quality housing in the area, we believe this will provide benefits to all.”

Martin Roberts, Principal of Addington Capital, said: “We were offered a good price for the site and wish Strawberry Star well in progressing the redevelopment. We will continue to intensively asset manage the rest of the shopping centre in the meantime.”

Addington and EPISO bought the Harvey Shopping Centre as part of a broader portfolio in 2011 and have been refurbishing and improving it since then. The Centre has benefitted with the opening of the Terrace in 2016 anchored by the 25,000 sq. ft. Cineworld and a number of new leading restaurant brands.

Santhosh Gowda, Chairman, Strawberry Star Group, said: “The Harlow site is an important investment for Strawberry Star, as it is the next step to realising our vision of delivering volume housing vision for Londoners, especially first-time buyers. This site is part of our long-term strategy to deliver 4,000 new homes by 2025. Massive regeneration in Harlow is driving local demand for quality housing. We intend to provide homes at prices which are achievable to home buyers, who have been priced out of London.”

“The Harlow site is our second mixed-use development in the London commuter belt. Work on our first scheme LU2ON, will commence in May 2019, creating 785+ apartments in Luton. We will continue to work with local councils to contribute to their regeneration plans and address the housing shortage issue in the UK.” Santhosh added.

The site is approximately 10-minutes’ walk from Harlow Town Station, which operates trains to London Liverpool Street station with an average journey time of 30 minutes. Harlow is an attractive option for home-movers from London and other expensive areas looking for family-friendly homes.

Strawberry Star Homes (SSH) builds quality homes in London with a focus on zones 3-9 and popular commuter belts where the demand for homes is rapidly increasing. It focuses on volume housing and lifestyle-driven communities in locations that benefit from new and existing fast transport links to Central London and business hubs. SSH will deliver 4000+ quality new homes (apartments) in the London commuter belt by 2025 to address the growing demand from first time buyers, young families, home-movers, working professionals, buy-to-let investors and international buyers.

Posted in News on 04 Apr, 2019

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London, March 8th 2019 Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has recruited Mike McGovern as a salaried partner and new head of Development. Mike joins from developer Eastern and Oriental and prior to that had spent eight years at Buro Four.

Mike will be responsible for looking after Addington’s existing projects including the office to residential conversion of One Lampton Rd, Hounslow into 115 apartments, new build development of Melbourne Street, Leeds delivering 100 apartments and the re-purposing of a key high street site to retail and offices in Cheltenham. Mike will be a key player in the appraisal and delivery of projects across the portfolio and new acquisitions.

In his career to date he has worked on numerous prestigious office schemes across central London, including 1 New Burlington Place, 10 New Burlington Street, and 55 Gresham Street and residential projects, including Esca House and 22-23 Newman Street as well as high rise projects in Canary Wharf and Hammersmith.

Commenting, Martin Roberts, Principal of Addington Capital said, “We are delighted to have attracted a professional of Mike’s calibre to our growing team. Mike has considerable experience in development and construction and has worked on a number of complex, high profile projects enabling him to develop a clear understanding of what is required to deliver successful projects in a demanding environment.”

“Addington continues to find opportunities to enhance property values across our main sectors of offices, retail and residential and increasingly development and redevelopment plays a key role in realising these returns. We believe the opportunities will only increase as we move into the next phase of the cycle. “

Addington Capital was set up in 2010 by Martin Roberts and Matthew Allen as an independent operating partner.

Mike joins a growing team at Addington. The company recently recruited partner Tim Cornford from Ellandi to head its retail asset management and prior to that in October last year, recruited partner Helen Shellabear from Hudson Advisors LP as asset manager.

Photo of Mike McGovern attached

Posted in News on 08 Mar, 2019

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London March 6th 2019 Addington Capital, the investment and asset management property specialist has sold two buildings in Sheffield:

- Wellington House (Wellington Street) was sold to Code Students Limited for £1.8million. The building comprised of 12 flats and a ground floor retail unit measuring 3,000 sq ft.

- Princess House, a 43-bed student scheme, was sold to Denvil Developments Ltd for £1.7m. The building is divided into seven flats, and following refurbishment by Addington, now has full occupancy. The building was sold with a planning consent in place to convert to 26 flats, which included the addition of two additional storeys.

The schemes had originally been bought as part of the Prospect portfolio, bought in joint venture in January 2016.

Commenting, Roshan Ramlugun of Addington Capital said, “These asset sales demonstrate the liquidity of well-located properties in Sheffield city centre, where the fundamentals remain strong, notwithstanding the uncertain UK economic outlook.”

“Addington will continue to seek properties where we believe we can add value through re-working or redeveloping. “

Photo of Wellington House enclosed

Posted in News on 06 Mar, 2019

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London, 15th February 2019: Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has received planning approval on a residential development on Melbourne Street in Leeds City Centre.

The application comprises of 100 apartments of varying sizes split into three blocks on varying levels. Den Architecture were the architects for the project.

The plan is to get on site and build as soon as possible and to target the PRS market.

This area of Leeds has seen significant regeneration in recent years and is now known as the Northern Quarter in recognition of its increased popularity and vibrancy. The wider area has also seen a number of new shops, bars and restaurants.

Phil Symonds, Partner at Addington said, “This scheme will be Addington’s third PRS scheme in Leeds. We acquired, refurbished and sold 183 units in joint venture at Waterside and are currently on site at Headingley, where we have developed 124 units to date and are now about to develop another 27. Leeds has an estimated population of 780,000 which makes it the 2nd largest city and the second-largest metropolitan district in the UK. It has a vibrant student and young professional market, who we believe will find our scheme attractive.”

Addington also has a large PRS Scheme in Sheffield, Velocity Village which consists of 371 apartments. Last year it set up ADDLiving, a new management and leasing platform which manages the Sheffield and Leeds sites.

Image attached- proposed 3D view of the scheme

Posted in News on 15 Feb, 2019

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London February 7th 2019 Addington Capital, the property investment and asset management specialist has recruited Tim Cornford as a salaried partner to head its retail asset management team. Cornford joins from Ellandi where he was an Associate Director.

Tim will be responsible for looking after the group’s retail assets which includes four shopping centres, bought in joint venture with its partners: The Harvey Centre, Harlow, Queen’s Arcade, Cardiff, Charter Walk, Burnley and Union Square, Torquay, together with retail assets acquired from other Addington’s JV deals including Retail Plus and the Bonsai portfolio. Currently, Addington has 1,250,000 sq ft of retail space under management.

Tim was instrumental in many of Ellandi’s acquisitions and managed a portfolio of six shopping centres, dealing with four different equity partners. He took a lead role in several town centre-wide repositioning developments, acquiring new assets, active asset management, managing letting and lease renewal processes and liaising with external valuers, agents, councils and stakeholders. He was also Head of Car Parking where he was responsible for the £6m p.a. income from the business’ car parks.

Tim joins a growing team at Addington. The company recruited Helen Shellabear as a partner and asset manager from Hudson Advisors L.P at the end of 2018 and last Summer appointed Erdal Kacar from L&Q, the PRS Specialist to spearhead ADDLiving, its new management and leasing platform for residential property.

Commenting, Martin Roberts, Principal of Addington Capital said, “We are delighted to have attracted another high-level professional of Tim’s calibre to our team. Addington has national retail expertise from small shops to town centre dominant shopping centres across the UK and expertise in the restaurant and leisure sector. Tim’s experience will be invaluable to us in creating further value from these assets.”

“Addington’s aim is to find opportunities to enhance property values across our main sectors of office, retail and residential and we believe the opportunities will continue to increase in this period of changing markets. “

Posted in News on 07 Feb, 2019

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