A fund advised by European retail property investment manager Meyer Bergman has acquired a site in Central London with plans to develop 18,000 m2 of boutique stores in an investment totalling more than £300 mln (€405 mln).
A fund advised by European retail property investment manager Meyer Bergman has acquired a site in Central London with plans to develop 18,000 m2 of boutique stores in an investment totalling more than £300 mln (€405 mln).
Meyer Bergman European Retail Partners II (MBERP II) has joined forces with central London developer Sherwood Street to purchase the 0.8-hectare site which is located next to the Borough Market food market. It is currently occupied by Vinopolis, a bar, dining, and events location scheduled to close in the spring of 2016.
The two partners have also acquired the Thames House mixed-use building and other sites adjacent to the Vinopolis Centre for the redevelopment.
'It is a signature investment for the fund and the proposed transformation will make a lasting and fitting contribution to the continued regeneration of this historic part of London when the scheme opens in 2018,' commented George Walsh-Waring, a principal of Meyer Bergman.
Tom Sherwood, founder of Sherwood Street, said: 'You aren’t going to get a better location in central London that is lacking a quality retail offering for shoppers than this.'
The partners have worked on initial proposals for the redevelopment in collaboration with the freehold owner of the site, Network Rail, and with the local planning authority Southwark Council, with the aim to submit a planning application shortly.
MBERP II invests in destination retail locations in the centres of major European cities and in assets with a dominant position in their catchment areas. Its other investments include prime retail buildings on Bond Street, Piccadilly and Queensway in London; the Champs-Elysees in Paris; two Karstadt department stores in Berlin and the forward purchase of the Westfield Broadway shopping centre development in Bradford, northern England.