South Bank potential tempts Allied to ITV
The development potential and overwhelming lack of supply on London’s South Bank has tempted Allied London back to the capital for its biggest development project in more than a decade.
The Spinningfields and Granada Studios developer is under offer to buy the former ITV Studios at 52-78 Upper Ground, SE1, for upwards of £150m.
If the deal completes, it will be its first large-scale development project in London since it completed the 370,000 sq ft office complex at 200 Aldersgate, EC1, in 2008. Its most recent completed development in London is the 150,000 sq ft Herbal House in Clerkenwell, EC1.
The development potential and overwhelming lack of supply on London’s South Bank has tempted Allied London back to the capital for its biggest development project in more than a decade.
The Spinningfields and Granada Studios developer is under offer to buy the former ITV Studios at 52-78 Upper Ground, SE1, for upwards of £150m.
If the deal completes, it will be its first large-scale development project in London since it completed the 370,000 sq ft office complex at 200 Aldersgate, EC1, in 2008. Its most recent completed development in London is the 150,000 sq ft Herbal House in Clerkenwell, EC1.
ITV launched the sale of the 2.5-acre site through Knight Frank in January. A global roadshow of the opportunity saw interest flood in from around a dozen different countries.
Bids are understood to have come from Seaforth Land; the Ofer family’s Global Holdings; Great Portland Estates; Henderson Park; Dartriver; Kirsh Group and CC Land with Native Land.
The site has consented plans for a scheme that included new studio space for ITV. But last year it scrapped those plans and said it will stay at Waterhouse Square in Holborn, WC1, and continue to use studios at BBC TV Centre in White City, W12.
As part of the sales process, Knight Frank drew up alternative potential plans for the site, which included around 417,000 sq ft of offices and 236,000 sq ft of residential development.
The South Bank has become an investment hotspot of late, with almost £1bn invested in to the submarket in 2018.
This includes Landsec ending its self-imposed acquisition hiatus with the purchase of 25 Lavington Street in December for more than £87m.
And with no speculative development in the area and occupiers fast running out of space, demand for projects in the area is only set to increase.
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