Affordable housing provider buys London site from Palmer Fund III

The third joint venture between CBRE Global Investment Partners (GIP) and Palmer Capital alongside Danescroft has sold a residential site in London to Shepherd’s Bush Housing Association.

Palmer Capital Development Fund III sold the 1-acre redevelopment site in West Drayton to the affordable housing provider for an undisclosed sum.

The former industrial site was acquired in January 2016 in a transaction arranged by Danescroft, a development partner of Palmer Capital. Danescroft co-invested in the transaction and were retained as the fund’s asset and development manager.

Danescroft secured planning consent for 87 residential units.

James Trelfa Danescroft’s director, said: “The sale concludes a successful business plan for Danescroft and Palmer Capital Development Fund III, on what is a prominent yet challenging site.

“We are actively seeking similarly constrained sites which present the opportunity for considered redevelopment and regeneration”

Alex Bignell, the UK region head for CBRE GIP, said: “The successful execution of the business plan for the West Drayton site by Danescroft represents another strong result for CBRE GIP’s third programmatic venture with Palmer Capital.” 

In May last year, Palmer Capital launched its fourth value-added UK real estate fund with backing from CBRE GIP.

“Other projects in this fund are also progressing well and we are committing significant capital to the fourth venture in this series,” Bignell said.

Chris Button the fund manager and head of value-add REIM at Palmer, said: “This transaction illustrates our track record in acquiring residential change of use of obsolete commercial buildings and our focus on good infrastructure links and strong demographic trends. 

“We have £300m (€340m) to invest in similar projects during 2018.”

Mohit Jain, a director of finance and development at Shepherds Bush Housing Association, said: “The thoroughness of the work carried out by the Danescroft team mean that we will very quickly be able to start on site and provide homes to local residents.”