Topland backs resi project in London with €43m loan

UK privately-held firm Topland has provided a £36 mln (€43 mln) senior debt bridging loan to multi-family office LJ Capital to acquire a five-acre site on the ultra-exclusive Bishops Avenue in London.

LJ Capital’s opportunistic-style LJ Special Situations Fund A has bought the site off-market. The five-acre site made up of six plots and 10 existing properties on Bishops Avenue, London's Billionaires' Row home to occupiers like the House of Saud and the President of Kazakhstan.

The vehicle has retained boutique design-and-build company Harrison Varma as its planning and development partner. Harrison Varma is a developer of luxury residential property, with a £250 mln development pipeline.

LJ was advised by Summit Property Advisors, Charles Russell and Brown Rudnick.

To date Topland has completed close to 50 loans worth over £300 mln. In the third quarter of this year alone, the firm deployed £100 mln through a variety of funding structures including joint ventures, bridging loans, senior development loans and mezzanine finance with a focus on prime residential development.

'Topland always seeks to back the best-in-class. LJ Group has proved itself to be a very savvy investor and this opportunity is potentially one of the best prospects currently available in the prime London residential property market,' said Topland Group chairman Sol Zakay.