Weston enters JV with Dev Secs on Greenwich Peninsula

Development Securities has entered into a joint venture with Weston Homes on an Allford Hall Monaghan Morris-designed scheme to regenerate a factory on the Greenwich Peninsula.

Under the deal, Weston Homes will pay an initial £19.1m for the majority of the Telegraph Works site, on which Dev Secs’ wholly owned subsidiary Cathedral Group has won planning permission for 256 apartments and 16 townhouses.

Telegraph Works forms part of a larger site, on which global telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent currently owns a factory and various operational facilities.

As part of the redevelopment, Cathedral has agreed to reconfigure the existing factory onto a smaller footprint, thus releasing the remainder of the site for housing.

Greenwich council and the Greater London Authority granted consent for the scheme, even though just 15% of the units were earmarked for affordable housing, on the grounds that the refurbishment of the factory would help to retain a multi-national employer in the capital.

This initial disposal realises profits of circa £9m to Dev Secs with further profits to be generated upon disposal of the completed townhouses.

The project was one of the assets acquired as part of Dev Secs’ acquisition of Cathedral in May 2014.

Michael Marx, chief executive of Development Securities, said: “Cathedral has exceeded our expectations in the added value crystallised by this transaction. The £9m gain realised on Telegraph Works, just one of the nine projects in their existing development portfolio, compares favourably against the total consideration of £27.4m anticipated to be paid for Cathedral.”