Galliard buys Camden office for resi conversion

Galliard Homes has won planning permission to convert the Carlow House office property in the London borough of Camden into a residential scheme offering 85 apartments.

Lender RBS provided funding for the acquisition of Carlow House and Galliard Homes is undertaking the new development together with partners Investec Property, Princeton Investments and Argo Real Estate.

Galliard will take responsibility for the construction, marketing and sales of the new project.

Carlow House is a 4,450 m2, four-storey building originally used by the London Underground. Bomb damage during WWII led to the redevelopment of the site in the 1950s, and in 1989 the property was extensively refurbished as smart offices.

Galliard Homes said that construction has commenced on site with the sales launch planned for October 2014. The new residential scheme will provide 61 one-bedroom and 23 two-bedroom apartments.

Savills, which brokered the deal, has been appointed sole sales agent for the new development.

This is the second residential redevelopment to be announced by Galliard in the space of a few days. Last week the firm paid £15 mln (€19 mln) for the Balfour Building in the London borough of Hounslow, which it plans to convert into 160 apartments and penthouses.

Located on a 1.94 acre site at 3 Lampton Road, the asset is a 200,310 sq ft building which previously housed the offices of Alitalia and Sri Lankan Airlines.

Barclays Bank is providing the funding facility for the project and The Balfour Building will be delivered vacant to Galliard Homes in October 2014, with construction scheduled to commence soon afterwards. Leading building contractor O’Shea is a 25% investment partner in the project