Billionaire landowner the Duke of Westminster dies
THE Duke of Westminster, Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, has died aged 64.
He died at the Preston Royal Infirmary Royal in Lancashire on Tuesday afternoon, having suddenly been taken ill at his Abbeystead Estate.
One of the UK’s richest landowners, he ranked sixth nationally in this year’s Sunday TImes Rich List, with a £9.35bn fortune, an incredible £790m increase on last year, and would annually top the table in the North West Rich List rankings.
While his fortune is grounded on 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia in London, he also owns the £1bn Liverpool One development, 165,000 acres of rural land, a dairy farm and the Chester Grosvenor Hotel.
The Liverpool ONE shopping and leisure development was transformational for Liverpool city centre when it opened in 2008.
The Duke’s Grosvenor Group property company reported record profits of £682m and at the end of 2014 had £5.5bn of development work in the pipeline.
His Westminster Foundation spent more than £3.9m charitably last year and donated to the Cheshire and Merseyside community foundations among others.
A spokesperson for his estate said: “His family are all aware and they ask for privacy and understanding at this very difficult time.
“No further comment will be made for the time being but further information will follow in due course.”
George Downing, founder of the Downing property group, said: “It’s a very sad loss and all of us at Downing offer our condolences to his family.The Duke was a significant figure in the North West business community. His passion for our region was well known and his investments made an enormously positive impact on Liverpool in particular, reshaping the city.
“To meet, the Duke was a very pleasant, self-effacing character. He was careful in everything he did and was much respected for his decency. If you look at the work of his Westminster Foundation you can see a great deal of concern for lower income families. Poverty in the UK and youth homelessness were both very high on his agenda. He has left us far too soon but his legacy is a good one.”
Hugh Grosvenor, 25, his third of four children and only son is the heir to the dukedom.
