Romford shopping malls lined up for residential makeover

Redical Holdings is in talks with Hub to create a 1,000-home regeneration scheme in parts of the Liberty Shopping Centre in Romford. Redical acquired the 790,000 sq ft centre in 2022 for £80m on behalf of its ESG focused Shopping Centre Fund. It was advised by its operating partner RivingtonHark.  Cushman & Wakefield and Green & Partners are mandated on the centre, which is now undergoing a £7m refurbishment.  Redical, which was set up by Mikko Syrjanen and Petteri Barman in 2020, is now in talks with Hub to build up to 1,000 homes of different tenures in the “peripheral retail malls”. Robert Sloss, chief executive of Hub, said: “In the central mall the retail is still performing well, but the peripheral mall is having problems and seeing a lack of demand. There is a huge regeneration opportunity there to develop up to 1,000 homes in various phases. “Our whole thesis is to protect the central mall, so we are redeveloping the periphery, but we are keeping the retail core – which I think greatly benefits the residential when it gets developed, and the two will be symbiotic. The retail will become more valuable if you improve the overall estate – if you have 2,000-2,500 people living in the whole development. In that circumstance we are adding to the site, we are taking away what doesn’t work and adding to the value of the asset.” Residential planning in Romford >>