Specialist lenders collaborate
Specialist lenders, Aldermore, Lendhub and Proseed Capital have collaborated on a £34m finance facility to enable the conversion of a large commercial unit into 108 units in Canary Wharf with a gross development value of £55m. The facility is majority funded by Aldermore who have provided £29m, making it their biggest property development deal to date and Lendhub and Proseed Capital have joined forces on a syndicated mezzanine loan of £4.1m to seasoned developers ‘London Green’.
London Green appointed debt advisors Mantra Capital to source and negotiate the debt package, for this ambitious project which will see the conversion of the current office space into 99 micro apartments and 9 new build units.
Established in 1998, London Green has an exceptional record of acquiring sites and obtaining planning permission or enhancing existing permissions, then developing for either long term retention or sale. They have developed over 2000 units in their 20-year existence and currently have over 600 units in planning, construction and in their rental portfolio.
James Tregoning, co-managing director, London Green said: “We are delighted to have secured development stage funding from Aldermore, Lendhub and Proseed for our flagship project. Our debt advisors, Mantra Capital, did a great job in bringing the three lenders together and in managing the complex transaction through to completion. Each of the lenders really bought into the scheme and showed a real desire to get the deal done. Our construction team is making good progress onsite and we are really excited to be delivering a great product in a fabulous location.”
Christopher Adamou, managing director, Lendhub commented: “We were thrilled to have been approached by Mantra Capital to assist with such an interesting case. Mantra Capital’s involvement was key to making the deal happen. Their hands on approach meant that all hurdles were overcome without delay.
“The Lendhub and Proseed Capital team worked closely with Aldermore and all professionals to get a time-sensitive and complex deal over the line- A great effort by all the parties involved!”
John Carter, commercial director at Aldermore said: “This has been one of our largest and most complex deals to date, involving multiple parties. Whilst deals of this size are not common practice for Aldermore, we were keen to provide the finance. An existing relationship with London Green, combined with a request that was well put together by Mantra, made it all that much easier. We continue to back people with viable strategies and this deal is a good example of that.”