Taylor Wimpey to redevelop £55 million Islington scheme

Taylor Wimpey will bear all construction costs for the redevelopment of the 1.9 acre site in return for ownership of the residential units created by the scheme.

The £55 million scheme currently has planning permission for 72 apartments and houses and a 63,000 square feet business centre. In return for the sale of the residential element of the scheme to Taylor Wimpey, the agreement provides that Workspace Group will benefit from a £4.75m payment spread over the construction period; ownership of the business centre and 30% of all private residential sales in excess of £33.1m.

All construction costs will be borne by Taylor Wimpey and the redevelopment is expected to be completed by early 2014. The site currently includes 53,000 sq ft of studio and light industrial space.

Workspace Group owns and manages 100 properties covering about 5.5m sq ft of commercial space across London, a significant number of which have the potential for mixed use redevelopment, the developer said.

This is the second project of this kind for Workspace. The first agreement for such a project was signed last March with developer Mount Anvil for an £80m mixed use scheme in Wandsworth Town Centre.

A number of similar projects are being undertaken across the City on sites that already have mixed use planning permission. Bow Enterprise in east London and the Grand Union in North Kensington are two such sites that have permission to collectively develop 700 residential apartments and 166,000 sq ft of new business centre space.