Plug pulled on Beetham’s flagship London scheme
PROPERTY developer The Beetham Organization has insisted that it will be able to find new investors for its flagship project in London after the joint venture company which owned the site was placed into administration.
One Blackfriars, a 51-storey tower which was designed by Manchester-based architect Ian Simpson, was placed into administration on October 14 following what the Liverpool-based developer describes as “the breakdown of the relationship between RBS and Beetham’s Russian partners”.
The Beetham Organization, run by chairman Hugh Frost and his son Stephen Beetham, had initially submitted planning for a 68-storey tower at the site next to the River Thames, but scaled it down to 51 storey following concerns over its impact.
An initial planning application submitted in 2006 was approved, but then a long battle ensued which saw the scheme called in by planners and it only eventually received approval last year.
The Beetham Organization had secured Dubai-based hotels group Jumeirah as anchor tenant for the building and had signed a joint venture with Russian property development firm Mirax which was meant to help fund the tower’s development, but Mirax’s assets were frozen last year after it failed to meet payments on a loan to Russian bank Alfa.
A statement from The Beetham Organization said that the firm “anticipate taking the project out of administration very shortly in association with new investors”.
It added that if the scheme comes to the market, it is likely to be offered to potential new partners at the beginning of next year with CBRE acting for the bank and Knight Frank acting for Beetham/Mirax. It said that it expects bids for the development to be “in excess of £150m”.
