The Department for Education has put a Whitechapel redevelopment site up for sale for £60m, after an aborted attempt to turn it into a school three years ago.
LocatED, a government-owned property developer which buys and develops sites for new schools in England on behalf of the DfE, is selling 41-71 Commercial Road, E1, along with the adjoining Met Works Building.
The island site contains 133,000 sq ft of internal space across the two buildings, most of which is in the Commercial Road block.
That was built in the 1960s and contains 124,000 sq ft of F1 space – classed as learning and non-residential accommodation – across the ground floor and six upper floors.
The Met Works Building, which backs onto the nearby Coke Street, contains 8,800 sq ft of the same use class. It was built in 2006.
LocatED is selling the scheme as a potential redevelopment or refurbishment, with the opportunity to still turn it into an educational site.
However, marketing documents reveal it could also be adapted to anything from offices to residential, with a maximum height of 14 to 17 storeys.
It comes after LocatED submitted a planning application in late 2017 to turn the site into a seven- to 16-storey building comprising a new all-through school for 1,570 pupils aged 7-19, as well as 71 residential units.
However, the plans were later withdrawn in mid-2018. Three years later, the developer is looking to sell the freehold to the site. Multiple market sources have indicated that LocatED is looking for offers around £60m.
Cushman & Wakefield is the seller’s agent.
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