Minutes:
Henrietta Nowne, Senior Development Manager – U+I plc (“Senior Development Manager”) gave a presentation providing an update on the St Mark’s Square development.
The St Mark’s Square development was a mixed-use scheme situated opposite Bromley South Station. Elements of the development were located underground, including a nine-screen VUE cinema and a 400-space car park, of which 300 spaces were for public use. The development also included lower and upper plazas, which were both wrapped by restaurants, and a 130-bed Premier Inn hotel, which had been at 85% occupancy since opening the previous year. Of the 200 residential units, 62 units had been affordable housing managed by Moat, 60% of which were shared ownership.
The development had been a Public Private Partnership between U+I plc and the London Borough of Bromley, who owned the site. The new development had been a complex build, with demolition of the former Westmoreland Road car park and digging down six storeys. It had been a long journey with their main contractor, McLaren. However the hotel had been built by modular construction methods, and had therefore been a much quicker process. Following the Grenfell Tower fire, and the timing of the build, a three week slot was secured in Dubai to replicate and fire test the cladding used on site. There were now just a few Section 278 works and basements works to be finished, with final practical completion expected at the end of the month.
There had been a refresh of the branding for the residential campaign, and the run rate had exceeded expectations, as once people arrived in Bromley, the location sold itself. The VUE cinema had exceeded the expected 750,000 visitors, which highlighted that the footfall was there, yet the restaurants had been more challenging. At practical completion, there had been a full line up of tenants, but only two were currently operating. These were Pizza Express and Nando’s, who had adapted to a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), and both were trading extremely well. In particular, the Pizza Express restaurant had noticeably different branding to the other restaurants in the chain, and had been fitted out to a new specification.
The unit housing Cocktail Embassy, for which there had been an influx of enquiries, would be fitted out the following week and open in eight weeks’ time. The scheme refresh would be launched in the next fortnight, and it was hoped that the remaining units would be fully let by the end of April 2020.
In response to a question, the Senior Development Manager said that the development had a varied mix of residential units, which ranged in price from £320k to £600k, and the retail rents were around £30 per square foot. None of the residential units had been bought by investors, and 70% of purchases had been through ‘Help to Buy’ schemes. The demographic of residents ranged from 27 to 80 years old, with some residents having downsized from bigger properties and were attracted by the easy access to London. It was noted that U+I plc had never had a scheme where the tenants that moved in already lived in such close proximity to the development.
The Chairman thanked Henrietta Nowne for an excellent presentation.