Terms Agreed with The Kennel Club, Clarges Estate

RNS Number : 6076A

British Land Co PLC

22 March 2013

 



22 March, 2013

British Land and The Kennel Club agree terms for new headquarters

 in Clarges Street, Mayfair

British Land has today exchanged agreements with The Kennel Club confirming terms to relocate and develop a new headquarters for the Club in Clarges Street, facilitating the company's plans to redevelop the entire site to create a landmark mixed use scheme.

Planning consent was originally granted in April 2011 for redevelopment of the site. The scheme comprised luxury private residential units fronting Piccadilly, retail and high quality offices in a separate block, and a new Kennel Club building. Since British Land's purchase of the Clarges Estate in November last year it has worked with The Kennel Club and original architects Squire & Partners to relocate the proposed new club and amend and improve the original scheme. A revised planning application for the improved scheme is being submitted shortly with consent expected later this year. 

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices at British Land, said "We're excited by the opportunity to redevelop the Clarges Estate and our agreement with The Kennel Club is an important step in realising our ambitions for this landmark site in Mayfair. The acquisition of Clarges demonstrates British Land's ability to identify opportunities, deliver solutions and create value. We have agreed terms with The Kennel Club, as anticipated at the time of purchase, which enable us to redesign the scheme while also providing new modern premises for the club. This will enhance our central London development programme and strengthen further our presence in the West End."

Rosemary Smart, Chief Executive of The Kennel Club,said, "The Trustees of the Kennel Club are delighted to have concluded negotiations with British Land as authorised by the members at our SGM in January 2013. The British Land team have listened carefully to the Club's requirements and have designed a brand new London headquarters building which will meet our future needs. This is an important event in the history of The Kennel Club and we look forward to working closely with their team over the coming years."

British Land's 2.2 million sq ft of central London offices and residential committed developments includes: a new 700,000 sq ft building for UBS at 5 Broadgate; The Leadenhall Building, a 610,000 sq. ft. tower, in London's insurance district; and a 500,000 sq. ft. mixed use office and residential scheme at the Regent's Place estate in the West End. It also includes a number of stand-alone residential developments. Since the beginning of 2009, British Land has completed 143,000 sq ft of residential developments in London, with a further 200,000 sq. ft. due to be completed by the end of 2013.

For Information Contact

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                    020 7467 2942

Media 
Pip Wood, British Land                                       020 7467 2838

Andrew Scorgie, FTI Consulting                           020 7269 9314

Charlotte Whitley, Finsbury                                 020 7251 3801

Notes to Editors:

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £16.3 billion (British Land share £10.4 billion), as valued at 30 September 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 97.7% and average lease length to first break of 11 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 60% of our portfolio with around 28 million sq ft of retail space across 82 retail parks, 92 superstores, 13 shopping centres and 9 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 35% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality offices includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. Over the last 2 years, we have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Managing our environmental, economic and social impacts is central to the way we do business and deliver value for our shareholders. We assess the issues that matter most to us and our stakeholders on an on-going basis and, where appropriate, adjust our strategic focus to reflect this. We focus on managing our buildings efficiently, supporting communities, developing sustainable buildings and engaging our staff. For each of these priorities we are targeting our efforts and resources at initiatives where we can achieve the biggest impacts.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

 

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