Arcadia Site Bought By Benson Elliot

The Arcadia site in Ealing which was owned by Glenkerrin International and had seen a tall building proposed by Foster + Partners has been sold following the collapse of the developer.

The new purchaser is Benson Elliot Capital Management which has purchased the 2.8-acre site for an unnamed sum. Glenkerrin had been taken over by Irish government agency NAMA, following its collapse pushing the company's debt onto the public balance sheet. Recently however NAMA has started to offload property assets in London to try and get the Irish deficit under great control.

At the heart of the announcement of the site purchase has been retail, indicating that Benson Elliot may see the plot as a way of constructing a major new shopping centre, but any attached tall buildings will be a challenge.

Benson Elliot plans to undertake a phased redevelopment of the site although details of this have yet to be announced. The make-up of the scheme they will be progressing with is unknown, but the developer is bound to have some struggles ahead of it in getting planning permission following the rejection of some previous proposals by the local council, and in the case of the last plans in 2009, by the then-Communities Secretary John Denham.

In Benson Elliot's favour, Denham is now out of government, whilst supporter of the previous proposals, Boris Johnson, remains mayor of London whilst the advent of Crossrail should add some impetus to finally get something done about this key site.