Crown Estate and Oxford Properties announce £145m extension to St James’s development
The Crown Estate and Oxford Properties are set to embark on another joint venture to redevelop part of London St James.
The project will be a £145m extension of the current £320m St James’s Market Partnership between the two companies and offer 160,000 sq ft of commercial space between St Albans Street and Haymarket.
The new 50-50 partnership will add to the current development, which begun in 2013 and work is currently ongoing to deliver 260,000 sq ft of retail, restaurant and office space, as well as improvements to public space.
Paul Clark, Director of Investment at The Crown Estate, said: “We’re delighted to be extending our partnership with a high calibre global investor like Oxford Properties.”
Paul Brundage, Executive Vice President and Senior Managing Director at Oxford Properties Europe added: “We’re equally delighted to be extending our relationship with the Crown Estate with this investment. St James’s is an area of London we are very excited about and the creation of a second joint venture with a like-minded strategic partner further provides us with the opportunity to realise our European strategy to invest in core markets and core assets alongside a development program to enhance portfolio returns.”
The Crown Estate have said that their £500m investment in its St James Portfolio, which includes half of the property in the area, is geared at regenerating historic locations by creating new and modern commercial property.
Completion is expected in 2016 and it is hoped the new space will secure the area’s position for future generations.
