Roger Madelin appointed - Canada Water development

RNS Number : 7837E

British Land Co PLC

06 November 2015

 



British Land appoints Roger Madelin to head up Canada Water development

British Land has appointed Roger Madelin to lead the development of its 46 acre Canada Water site. Roger Madelin will join the company at the beginning of February 2016 and will also sit on British Land's Executive Committee. Roger has been at Argent since 1987 and was Chief Executive/Joint Chief Executive from 1997 - 2012. He was directly responsible for leading a number of Argent's developments and from 2000 led the Argent team bringing forward the 67 acre King's Cross development.

The acquisition of Surrey Quays Leisure Park in March this year completed British Land's assembly of the Canada Water site, which also includes Surrey Quays Shopping Centre and Harmsworth Quays, the former Daily Mail General Trust printing works. The combined sites, which have potential for around 5.5million sq ft (net internal area) of office, retail, residential, leisure, educational and community space, have been assembled over the last five years and create a significant mixed use development opportunity in the heart of one of London's major regeneration zones.

Canada Water has excellent existing infrastructure and will also benefit from the opening of Crossrail at Canary Wharf in 2018. It is a major, long term project, which will be delivered in a number of phases and presents a unique opportunity to create an attractive, mixed use town centre which fully reflects the needs of local communities. British Land is currently working with the London Borough of Southwark and local communities to deliver the Canada Water Masterplan and expects to submit a planning application by the end of next year.

Chris Grigg, Chief Executive of British Land, said: "Development is a core part of our business: we are very focused on areas of London which will benefit from growth and regeneration. Canada Water provides an exceptional and exciting opportunity to create a mixed-use scheme with office, retail, residential, leisure and community space. Roger Madelin is a highly experienced developer and brings enormous experience of delivering major mixed-use developments. Placemaking lies at the heart of what we do and I look forward to working with Roger to create a vibrant new destination for London that caters for a wide range of modern needs."

Roger Madelin, said "The combination of the physical opportunity at Canada Water, working with British Land and with the thoughtful and ambitious London Borough of Southwark was an opportunity too exciting to turn down. I have had an amazing 29 years at Argent and thank all my colleagues for the trust and support they have given me. The completion of the last phases of King's Cross are in talented and safe hands. For new projects Argent and its new partner Related has an exciting future and I wish them all well."

Notes to editors

•           Roger Madelin has been at Argent since 1987, a Director from 1988 until 1997, then CEO/Joint CEO from 1997 until 2012.

•           He was directly responsible for leading Argent's developments including those in the Thames Valley, Manchester, the City of London and Brindley Place in Birmingham. 

•           Since 2000 he led Argent's team bringing forward the 67 acre development at King's Cross. 

•           Since the end of 2012, when Argent restructured as a Limited Liability Partnership, he has been one of nine Partners but has reduced his involvement to three days a week. 

•           For the past three years, Roger has concentrated on specific aspects of delivery at King's Cross.

•           Roger will continue to stay involved at King's Cross on a minimal consultancy basis providing a legacy role in connection with the three buildings being developed for the Aga Khan Development Network.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                            020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                               020 7467 2838

Giles Barrie, FTI                                                                         020 3727 1042 / 07798 926814

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London offices. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £18.9 billion (of which British Land share is £13.6 billion), as valued at 31 March 2015. Our properties are home to over 1,200 different organisations ranging from international brands to local start-ups. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 55% of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 22 million sq ft of retail space across shopping parks, superstores, shopping centres, department stores and leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 45% of our portfolio is focused on London.  We have an attractive mix of high quality buildings in well managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our Offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 6.7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier city office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

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

 

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