The redevelopment of Earls Court has endured a long and tortured history of opposition and a weak luxury London housing market that’s threatened profitability. — Bloomberg
LONDON: Plans for the long-stalled Earls Court redevelopment have been scaled back, in the latest rethink for London’s largest cleared development site.
Private equity firm Delancey and Dutch pension fund APG, which own the site through the Earls Court Development Company (ECDC), published draft proposals Wednesday that include 4,000 homes and 2.5 million sq ft of workspace.
That’s down from 4,500 homes envisaged in proposals earlier this year, with the height of several proposed tall buildings reduced and the amount of open space increased.
The redevelopment of Earls Court, once a major exhibition centre that was demolished in 2015, has endured a long and tortured history of opposition and a weak luxury London housing market that’s threatened profitability.
The site’s valuation has fallen by £827mil (US$1bil) since its peak, Bloomberg News reported in September.
“Our plans have progressed and benefited from continued open dialog with a broad spectrum of community groups and stakeholders,” ECDC chief executive officer Rob Heasman said in a statement.
The latest proposals equate to a 10% reduction in the volume of development and a 20% increase in open space, ECDC said in the statement.
That includes reducing the height of several proposed tall buildings so that only one planned 42-storey tower will now exceed the height of the existing Empress State building on the site.
Delancey and APG bought the site for £425mil in 2019 from CapCo, a real estate investment trust that’s since re-branded as Shaftesbury Capital Plc following a merger.
CapCo originally secured initial approval to build 7,500 homes on a larger site in 2012 from both Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham councils.
The approval of that master plan, which involved the demolition of two public housing estates, contributed to the Conservative party losing control of Hammersmith & Fulham to the Labour Party, which had opposed the proposals, at elections in 2014.
CapCo continued to prepare the site for development, clearing the existing buildings, but didn’t start construction as its plans to increase the density to 10,000 homes met further opposition amid a downturn in London’s luxury housing market.
After they took over, Delancey and APG handed back the West Kensington and Gibbs Green housing estates to Hammersmith & Fulham Council.
The Earls Court Development Company now plans to submit a revised application in the middle of next year, with the first phase of work including over 1,000 homes, cultural and commercial buildings scheduled to start in 2026. — Bloomberg
