Real estate giants have rushed to the aid of a Ukrainian social club that ran out of room to house donations as the war with Russia escalates.
British Land and Quintain have each offered space to the Ukrainian Social Club, which is based on Holland Park Avenue, W11.
The club has been collecting care packages comprising clothes, medical equipment and other donations to send to Ukraine, but with its own site full was faced with the only option for storage being a two-hour drive outside of London.
Ros Elwes, a partner at architecture firm KSK Associates who had been in touch with the club, contacted SAY Property Consulting founder Debra Yudolph and asked her to spread the word within the real estate sector. Just 45 minutes after Yudolph posted a request for space on LinkedIn, British Land had offered a 5,000 sq ft vacant storage unit at its Paddington Central campus. That was Saturday night (5 March), and the club was able to use the space from Sunday morning.
“It’s amazing, just the speed,” Yudolph said. “There was no red tape attached to it – the fact that over a weekend a company like British Land could mobilise that so quickly was fantastic.”
Since then, Quintain has pledged to give the club space at its Wembley Park development. The company has recently lit up the scheme in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag (pictured). Elwes is now in discussion with London’s black cab drivers about a convoy to help take the social club’s donations to the new premises.
Yudolph established the Do Some Good initiative for the real estate industry during the pandemic, setting up a platform through which companies could offer space, supplies and manpower to the NHS. The industry’s ability to do good in times of crisis has long been apparent, she said, and although responses to the war between Russia and Ukraine must be balanced, she added, “the best response is to support Ukraine as an industry”.
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