Parkview International has agreed to sell the Battersea Power Station site in London, UK, to Real Estates Opportunities (REO) for £400m.
Parkview purchased the site for around £10.5m in 1993 and has since spent in excess of £100m developing plans for a mixed-use entertainment destination.
REO, a listed public company, is to acquire the 38-acre site and take over the development, while Parkview will retain an interest in the project by reinvesting 37.5 per cent of the value of the site back into REO.
Victor Hwang, president of Parkview, said: “Our first priority has always been to ensure that the regeneration of Battersea Power Station would be seen through to completion. We have given a great deal of effort to create a world class project in one of the world’s greatest cities.
“We have, over time, been in numerous discussions to seek the right development partner for the project to continue and we believe that REO is the right choice. To see this development through the construction phase to completion requires vision, skill, finance and experience in urban regeneration on this scale.”
He added that it was time to put the Battersea project in the hands of a public company.
“It is right that the next phase and future of Battersea Power Station should now be transferred into a publicly listed Company,” he said. “This will ensure that there is transparency and clear reporting requirements to the public, whose affection for this iconic building has never wavered. There is now an opportunity for public investment into what will become an unrivalled 21st Century mixed use luxury living and working environment.”
The £1.1bn scheme, which finally received planning permission two weeks ago, includes the transformation of the power station into a leisure and retail destination boasting shops, bars and restaurants, exhibition space, a multiplex cinema, rooftop boutique hotel and health club and spa, while both a resort and a conference hotel, residential units, office space, a product showcase building and an underground auditorium will be built around the iconic structure. A one-table restaurant is planned for the top of one of the towers.
REO’s majority shareholder is the Irish company Treasury Holdings which was responsible for the regeneration of the 52-acre Spencer Dock in Dublin.
“We are delighted to be involved in a project that presents both a magnificent property development opportunity and challenge,” said Ray Horney, chair of REO.
“The power station itself is a building that is a much-loved part of London’s heritage on a site, which by virtue of its size and location, offers an extraordinary development opportunity.
“Treasury Holdings will lend its development expertise to this site and those that know its work at Spencer Dock in Dublin should have great confidence that the site is in good hands.”
REO is now set to review all aspects of the development, but work is still expected to start on site in the first quarter of 2007.
