Musings of a London Property Search Agent

CPC Group owned by the Candy Brothers have pulled out of the redevelopment of the 13 acre Chelsea Barracks site, selling an option to buy the Candy’s stake to existing partner Qatari Diar, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, according to a story in The Gulf Times today.

Much was made of the purchase in January when the Candy Brothers and their partners purchased the site from the Ministry of Defence for £959 million ($1.5 billion) in January.   The Candys have been hit by the credit crunch, with news last week that they were selling out of a project in the US following a failure to convert bridging finance to long-term construction finance since the beginning of the credit crunch.

The Candys planned to develop the Chelsea Barracks site for high net worth individuals, followed the lines of their One Hyde Park development, where purchasers were rumoured to have paid in the region of £100 million for some of the best flats in the block.  Purchasers reputedly signed non-disclosure documents and most apartments were purchased using companies to reduce the tax burden so exact figures have for the most part remained out of the public domain.  Likewise, the latest deal struck with Qatari Diar was for an undisclosed sum.  This London Property Search Agent is monitoring developments so watch this space.

 http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=253547&version=1&template_id=57&parent_id=56

Technorati Tags: Candy & Candy, Candy Brothers, Chelsea Barracks, Chelsea Property, London Property Search Agent, Prime London Property, Qatari Diar

Tags: Candy & Candy, Candy Brothers, Chelsea Barracks, Chelsea Property, London Property Search Agent, Prime London Property, Qatari Diar

Musings of a London Property Finder

Following the Failure of Kaupthing Bank, one of Candy & Candy’s investment partners in the NoHo development in Fitzrovia and 9900 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverley Hills, it turns out that Candy & Candy have transferred their stake in the NoHo development in exchange for the equity belonging to Kaupthing in the Beverley Hills project.   The move is thought to be a key step to stabilize the future of the $1 billion development project which they now control with London restaurateur Richard Caring. 

According to The Los Angeles Times, the Candys are in default on the $365 million bridging finance loan they took out to purchase their $500 million stake in 2007.  However they have failed to secure construction finance, since the credit crunch struck.  Watch this space for more news about the Candys from the London Property Finder

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bevhills31-2008oct31,0,139088.story

Update on The Times Online - interview with the Candys

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article5113713.ece

Technorati Tags: 9900 Wilshire Boulevard, Candy & Candy, Candy Brothers, Caring Candy development, Kaupthing, London Property Finder, Noho Development, Richard Caring

Tags: 9900 Wilshire Boulevard, Candy & Candy, Candy Brothers, Caring Candy development, Kaupthing, London Property Finder, Noho Development, Richard Caring

Musings of a London Property Search Agent

Westfield Shopping Centre will be opened today by Mayor Boris Jonson at 10.30am.  This will be the largest shopping centre in London and apparently the largest city-centre shopping centre in Europe.  It marks the beginning of the end of the building site at the side of the West Cross Route between Shepherd’s Bush and Holland Park.

The Westfield website is keen to project a quality image and have managed to lure a number of luxury retailers in addition to high street brands and the 3 main department stores: House of Fraser, Debenhams and M&S.  The green gang will be disappointed at the high number of parking spaces (4,500) allowed for this development but drivers will love the valet parking (£5 plus parking for a limited time) and the ’state of the art’ parking facilities which guide drivers to a free space.  Hopefully the designers have made it equally accessible to tube users and pedestrians.

Love it or hate it, the centre should have a positive impact on house prices both in Shepherd’s Bush,  and the surrounding areas such as West Kensington, Holland Park and Ladbroke Grove.  Many of the independent retailers around Shepherd’s Bush have a very different offering to the main retailers in Westfield and the more specialist among them may benefit from the increased traffic and the others will have to adapt to survive.  For local residents it will always be quicker to pop into a local shop than to walk miles through the shopping centre for a few items but the increased amenities will certainly be a draw in an area which has struggled with it’s identity as the poor relation to Holland Park, Kensington, Brook Green and Chiswick.

Residents should make a point of continuing to use their local shops if they don’t want them to vanish as if the economic slowdown coupled with Westfield force too many closures, the resulting landscape of closed or empty shops would certainly not be appealing to buyers.

One last thing - Property Week have just issued the news that the Candys are exiting the Noho development of the Middlesex Hospital in Fitzrovia, leaving the development in the hands of Icelandic bank Haupthing.  Watch this space the London Property Search Agent is monitoring retail closures near Westfield.

Technorati Tags: Candy Brothers, Fitzrovia, Holland Park House Prices, Ladbroke Grove House Prices, London Property Search Agent, Noho Development, Shepherds Bush House Prices, Shopping Centre, West Ken Property Prices, West Kensington House Prices, Westfield

Tags: Candy Brothers, Fitzrovia, Holland Park House Prices, Ladbroke Grove House Prices, London Property Search Agent, Noho Development, Shepherds Bush House Prices, Shopping Centre, West Ken Property Prices, West Kensington House Prices, Westfield