ANALYSIS: Hot on the heels of announcing revised plans for half of its Perfume Factory site in North Acton, W3, build-to-rent developer Essential Living has sold the other half to Imperial College London for £30m.
Imperial plans to build around 700 student flats on the southern half of the plot.
Essential Living originally gained outline consent for 534 homes across the entirety of the site, and is soon to submit revised plans for between 350 and 450 homes across the northern plot. This would mean an increase in the scheme’s density, although achieved through shorter buildings. The tallest element would be around 25 storeys, rather than 33 as originally planned.
Imperial has also acquired the Carphone Warehouse site (in blue), across the road, exchanging contracts just before Christmas for £83.5m. The 4.5-acre freehold site was acquired from Crosstree Real Estate Partners, which gained planning consent last August for a 1m sq ft scheme comprising 764 residential units, across eight buildings.
If Imperial has the same idea and wishes to build more student housing, at the same density, it could realistically expect to develop around 1,500 student flats, being more than double the size of their Perfume Factory plot.
At the moment the university isn’t giving much away on its future plans. It said: “The asset has been acquired by the college’s endowment, whose purpose is to generate investment growth and regular unfettered income to support the college’s academic mission. The 4.5-acre site has been acquired subject to an existing lease with Carphone Warehouse that runs to 2030.”
Paul Cockburn, director in the central London investment team at Savills, which sold the site on behalf of Crosstree Real Estate Partners said: “Imperial College will review its options over the coming years, while benefitting from the income security.”
Just two stops and away on the Central Line is White City, where Imperial College has appointed Allies & Morrison to masterplan a new southern campus that would extend its research and innovation district currently under construction. Imperial bought the site in 2013 for £127m, again from a house builder, a joint partnership between Aviva Developers and Helical Bar, which had consent for 1,150 homes.
With university students in London struggling to find suitable purpose-built accommodation, especially close to where they study, Imperial will be an attractive offer if it can build a student enclave just minutes from campus.
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