A timeline of the big property stories across 2010
Created by estatesgazette on 13/12/2010
Last updated: 17/12/10 at 11:56
Irvine Sellar’s ‘Shard of Glass’ reaches 55 stories, making it the tallest tower in the UK even though it wont reach its full 87 stories until 2013.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=727308
Legal & General enters into exclusive talks with Jamie Ritblat’s Delancey and Invista Real Estate to buy the Rolls building at 110 Fetter Lane, EC4 for around £300m.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=727042
Palmer Capital Partners’ chairman Ray Palmer, who is a major shareholder in Frontier Estates, is removed as a company director of Frontier Estates and has High Court proceedings issued against him after a disagreement over the direction of the business.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=727161
More property heads quit: Martin Moore, the 54‑year-old managing director of PRUPIM, announces he is to step down from the position after 14 years in the role and Jonathan Lane, the 65-year old chief executive of central London REIT Shaftesbury, announces his intention to retire as chief executive of the £1bn firm he has led since its formation in 1986.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=727057
Real Estate Opportunities wins planning consent for its plans to redevelop Battersea Power station but says that its future as a going concern is reliant on NAMA and other lenders renewing expiring bank facilities.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725993
Chiswick Park business park comes to the market for around £450m, a year after the termination date of its ownership vehicle, the Chiswick Park Unit Trust.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725654
Investors circle Derek Quinlan Glen Maud’s 45-storey Citigroup Tower in Canary Wharf which is expected to fetch £1bn.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725801
The Crown Estate has confirmed that it has selected the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global to take a 25% stake in its £1.8bn Regent Street property partnership
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725806
As the Irish economy lurches towards a debt crisis and is bailed out by its EU neighbours, Irish property developer Paddy McKillen fails to win a request for a judicial review of NAMA's decision to take over his €2.1bn (£1.8bn) loans.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725817
The Homes and Communities Agency avoids George Osborne’s ‘bonfire of the quangos’ to take control of the £1.7bn of assets formerly owned by England's Regional Development Agencies.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=726025
Westfield attempts to tempt traders at Borough Market east to its Stratford shopping centre.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725317
The government publishes its Growth white paper spelling out how it plans to introduce Tax Increment Financing (TIF) by allowing only local authorities to borrow the cash against future business rate receipts. The news spells bad news for some proposed TIFS led by developers such as Sevenstone, Preston Tythebarn and Crowley Town Centre North but is good news for others such as plans to redevelop Battersea Power Station.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725313
More property companies fail: Ardeshir Naghshineh’s Norwich-based Targetfollow finally falls into administration after protracted negotiations with lender Lloyds Banking Group; and Scottish developer Elphinstone Estates is finally forced to call in administrators KPMG due to ongoing trading losses and cash flow problems.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=725223
The government’s Comprehensive Spending Review announces that the public sector workforce will be cut by around 490,000 by 2015 spelling gloom for landlords. Labour-backed regeneration schemes such as the massive Thames Gateway project are put on hold.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724984
Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea councils announce plans to merge their services and form the UK’s first ‘super-council’
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724979
Listed property fund manager Invista puts itself up for sale after Lloyds Banking Group, one of the company’s biggest clients, announced it would terminate all of its HBOS contracts in October 2011
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724643
Arcadia boss Sir Philip Green, the government’s efficiency czar, reports that the government could save millions of pounds by slashing unnecessary costs on offices and property management.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724446
Hermes puts its 7.5% stake in the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent on the market for around £120m attracting a number of overseas bidders.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724144
Ian Coull announces his intention to retire as chief executive of Segro.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=724620
The Scottish government backs plans to use a pilot Tax Increment Financing (TIF) scheme as part of ambitious plans to redevelop Edinburgh’s Waterfront.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=723877
Nick Clegg announces at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference that local councils will be able to use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to enable new development
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=723512
The British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) goes into voluntary liquidation – another victim of government cutbacks.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=723017
Property companies fall into administration as Lloyds Bank pulls the plug on both Ian Wotherspoon’s Kilmartin and Thornfield Ventures
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=711396
US private equity group revives plans to seize control of the 1,250 flat Dolphin Square in Pimlico, SW1 from freeholder Friends Provident.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=723147
The proposed sale of Tower 42 is abandoned by owners BlackRock, LaSalle Investment Management and Hermes Real Estate.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=722493
Confidence returns to the City investment market as Evans Randall buys Drapers Gardens, EC2 for £242.5m reflecting an initial yield of 5.25.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=722370
Lloyds Banking Group assembles a panel of 10 agents to help it reduce its £19.6bn distressed property loan book.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=722211
Local councils stall planning decisions as they wait for the government’s proposed changes to the planning system to come into effect: In Ipswich BT’s Adastral Park scheme which comprises proposals for 2,000 homes and 650,000 sq ft of offices is put on hold while the local authority considers the implication of the government’s abolition of regional plans.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721860
Budget retailer Primark announces plans to open a second store on London’s Oxford Street
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721615
St Martins, the investment vehicle of the state of Kuwait, prepares to dispose of as much as £900m (€1,079m) of its £3bn worldwide portfolio as part of a rationalisation of its smaller-value assets in the UK and Europe.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721216
Canadian pension funds up their investment in London property: Hammerson teams up with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to buy the 260,000 sq ft 10 Gresham Street, EC2 from Union Investment Real Estate for £183m. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) is in talks to become a silent partner in the Crown Estate’s planned regeneration of its 15 acre St James’ holdings, SW1.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721967
After a decade of delays and false dawns, Southwark council and Lend Lease sign a detailed development agreement to allow the £1.5bn redevelopment of the Elephant & Castle, SE1.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721115
Land Securities announces it is about to re-start work on its Trinity Leeds shopping centre– making the scheme the first major retail development outside London to start since the downturn.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=720868
Global private equity firm Carlyle buys six landmark central London properties that were formerly part of the securitised White Tower portfolio owned by Simon Halabi.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=720601
Candy & Candy duo, Nick and Christian Candy win their court battle to sue Qatari Diar for breach of contract over their plans to redevelop the prestigious Chelsea Barracks site in SW3 claiming that Prince Charles personally intervened to express his dislike of the proposals triggering the withdrawal of the plans. However, they are not awarded compensation and apologise unreservedly as the two sides reach a confidential settlement on damages.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721299
Gerald Ronson’s Heron Tower signs its first tenant, law firm McDermott Will & Emry at £55 per sq ft.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=720363
Moorfield and Hines team up to buy eight buildings at Brindleyplace in Birmingham for £200m from the Brindleyplace Limited Partnership.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=720019
Ian McGarry, the former head of City valuations at Dunlop Haywards pleads not guilty to accusations of taking part in a £50m mortgage fraud. The case continues.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=720022
The former HGV driver who defrauded a property investor, claiming he could sell him the Ritz Hotel in London for £200m in return for a non-refundable £1m deposit is sentenced to five years imprisonment.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=721124
George Osborne’s Emergency Budget announces plans to cut housing benefit by £1.8bn and cap spending per house to just £400 per week.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=719508
The government announces that John McCready's property unit, part of the Shareholder Executive, and the Office of Government Commerce are merging as part of government plans to improve efficiency across its £370bn estate.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=719368
Asian investors lead global demand for residential investment property in central London. Asian investors spent £761m and bought more than a fifth of all central London new build homes in the year to March 2010 according to Knight Frank.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=719129
As the football World Cup takes place in South Africa, PricewaterhouseCoopers confirms that it has sold Selhurst Park, the home of Crystal Palace FC to a local business-led fans consortium CPFC 2010 after the company which had owned the ground, part of the collapsed property empire of Paul Kemsley, fell into administration.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=718824
DTZ and Jones Lang LaSalle tell UK staff they will reinstate full salaries after introducing voluntary pay cuts during the recession.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=712787
De Montfort University’s annual report into property lending identifies that a record £50bn of a total £250bn bank loans made against commercial property in the UK are in trouble.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=717999
After an inconclusive election result, David Cameron and Nick Clegg form a Coalition government and begin to implement a policy of ‘Localism.’ They announce £6bn of public sector cuts including plans to abolish Regional Development Agencies and regional plans.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=717899
Agents report improving Q1 results: CBRE announces a -$6.6m loss for Q1 compared with a -$36.7m loss for Q1 2009 and JLL reports a $200,000 profit compared with a -$61m loss in Q1 2009.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=716949
Demand for office space in the City reaches its highest levels since 2000 with rents up from £33 per sq ft to £55 per sq ft – as no new schemes likely to come on stream until 2012.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=717094
BlackRock, LaSalle Investment Management and Hermes Real Estate put Tower 42, the 600ft former NatWest tower on Old Broad Street, EC2, on the market.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=716292
The MCC announces search for a development partner to fund the redevelopment of Lord’s Cricket Ground.
http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Article.aspx?liArticleID=716387
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