Alternative lender Octopus Real Estate has agreed to provide Heworth Green Developments, under the North Star banner, with an £18.3 mln (€20 mln) facility secured against a major development site in the UK city of York.
The 36,000 m2 former National Grid site in the city has planning consent for 607 homes, as well as consent for retail or community use floor space.
The facility will be used to refinance current debt, acquire the remaining part of the site, and finance the ground works and removal of a decommissioned gas holder, according to Octopus.
Ludo Mackenzie, Octopus head of commercial property, said: 'The Heworth site is the largest residential development opportunity in York. It has taken many years to get to a position where works can commence, and we are proud to be involved.'
Work will start on site later this month with remediation and infrastructure works, allowing the construction of new homes to follow this.
The site is part of a major brown field development, located a short walk from York Minster and a 25-minute walk from York train station, Octopus said. Overall, the site is expected to have a gross development value of £85 mln.
Moda Living has exchanged contracts for the private residential sector (PRS) element of the site, the first PRS scheme in York, while North Star will continue to develop 215 open market sale units.
A spokesperson for North Star said: 'Securing this funding deal is another major milestone in the project.
'The journey to transform this large, brown field site into a vibrant new community has taken over 18 months so far and we are very excited to see it now coming to fruition.'
Tom Frank from Ice Cubed Commercial Finance acted as the adviser.
