£33m loan provided by consortium for Worcester scheme
A consortium have provided a £33M loan to Sherriff’s Gate Development Limited in Worcester City Centre.
The funding from OakNorth Bank, Hilltop Credit Partners, a specialist funding partner for SME residential developers, and MCAP Global Finance (UK) LLP, the UK subsidiary of New York based Marathon Asset Management will be used to develop 213 affordable apartments in its first phase of the Sherriff’s Gate development.
The development will ultimately consist of 469 apartments, 40,000 sq. ft. of commercial and retail space, a 200-room hotel, several restaurants, 10-pin bowling lanes, a cinema, a gym, and nearly 1,000 new parking spaces.
The development formers part of the Worcester City Masterplan, where targets have been set to deliver more than 3,000 new homes, 8,600 jobs, nine new parks and public spaces and new cycle infrastructure.
Stennard Harrison Jr., CEO of Sherriff’s Gate Limited, said: “We are excited to be breaking ground on a development site we have been assembling for over 30 years. With a footprint of over 7 acres, the Sherriff’s Gate development will have a transformative effect on Worcester’s City Centre.
“Given the strong local housing demand, and the lack of affordable housing supply that has been delivered over the past decade, we believe there will be strong uptake for Phase I units from both owner-occupiers and buy-to-let landlords. It has been a pleasure to work with the Hilltop team whose deep understanding of development finance allowed us to successfully complete this complex transaction.”
Paul Oberschneider, Founder and CEO of Hilltop Credit Partners, said: “Over the past two years, Hilltop has been an active player in the UK development lending market, supporting SME residential developers and providing funding for new homes across the UK.
“Our partnership with Marathon, one of the world’s leading institutional credit managers, will allow us to fund larger developments with whole loans of up to c. £100m.
“Having secured a loan-on-loan facility from OakNorth Bank back in 2019, we knew they’d be the right funding partner for this transaction – the team is collaborative, commercial, and entrepreneurial.”
Mohith Sondhi, Senior Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth Bank, said: “We are pleased to be continuing our long-standing relationship with Hilltop Credit Partners to provide senior financing for Sherriff’s Gate, which will provide affordably priced housing in the historic West Midlands city of Worcester, delivered by an experienced local developer”.
