SPORTING LEGACIES FULL STORY AND VIDEO REPORTS CLICK HERE Hussey offsets at Marble Arch
BY JOANNA BOURKE Mike Hussey’s Almacantar is working up plans to avoid affordable housing grumbles at its redevelopment of Marble Arch Tower, W1. The developer is in advanced negotiations to
buy the nearby 466 Edgware Road, W2, from its charity owner for around £10m. The 100,000 sq ft largely vacant office building
will be transformed into an affordable housing block, offsetting the need to include the homes in its redevelopment of Marble Arch Tower. Almacantar undertook a similar deal at
Centre Point, buying the Intrepid Fox pub from Laurence Kirschel’s Consolidated Developments. That scheme will include between eight and 16 affordable homes – a move which it hopes Camden council will
accept and then grant its £350m makeover of Centre Point consent. The Centre Point project was out for its
second public consultation last week. At Marble Arch, Almacantar will submit
plans to Westminster City council in May. It wants to turn the 166,000 sq ft
1960s-built office block into a 250,000 sq ft Rafael Vinoly-designed mixed-use scheme comprising 100,000 sq ft of offices and 60 luxury flats. Almacantar bought the property from clients of Orchard Street Investment Management in summer 2011 for around £80m. The purchase was funded with a £40m loan from Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.
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