The McCabe family’s Scarborough Group International has secured funding for two residential developments on the edge of Manchester from two publicly-listed Far Eastern property groups.
The McCabe family’s Scarborough Group International has secured funding for two residential developments on the edge of Manchester from two publicly-listed Far Eastern property groups.
The gross development value for the two schemes is around £600 mln (€754 mln).
Scarborough was created by international developer-investor Kevin McCabe who is a co-owner of Sheffield United football club in the UK.
The company's joint venture partners in Manchester are Top Spring International Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed real estate developer in China and Singapore-listed developer-investor Metro Holdings.
The parties are cooperating to develop Scarborough’s sites at Phase II of Milliners Wharf, a canalside development in New Islington, Manchester, and Middlewood Locks, a 9.5-hectare site at the western gateway of Manchester and centred around the former Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal.
Top Spring and Metro are making their first investments in the UK real estate market and will each hold 25% of the joint venture, with Scarborough retaining the 50% balance.
THE SCHEMES
Phase II of Milliners Wharf, which has a gross development value of £30 mln, is branded as the Hat Box. On completion it will provide 144 luxury apartments in an eight-storey building, on the Ashton Canal. Construction is due to commence in summer 2014 with completion expected during 2016.
Phase I of the Milliners Wharf scheme, acquired by Scarborough in 2010 and comprising 261 apartments, is almost fully sold at prices between £100,000 and £250,000.
Middlewood Locks, which has a gross development value of £575 mln, is planned to provide a new neighbourhood with up to 2,000 new homes along with mixed commercial uses including offices, shops, delis, restaurants, a convenience store, nursery and gym.
The site already has outline planning consent for 241,000 m2 of residential-led, mixed-use development, but an additional 1-hectare section of the site acquired recently is expected to increase the gross development area, once outline planning consent has also been granted for this additional section.
Kevin McCabe, chairman of Scarborough, said: 'I have known and worked with the directors and management teams of Top Spring and Metro for many years through Scarborough’s extensive activities in China, and have the utmost respect for them'.