After a good few years of speculation and swirling rumours, it’s showtime for one of the most high-profile super-prime resi opportunities in London.
The 1.26-acre Kensington Odeon site, opposite Holland Park and the Design Museum, was openly marketed earlier this year with hard-won consent for 43 top-end residences, looking for offers in the region of £80m.
There was no word on a successful result in the immediate aftermath of the May best-bids date, but reports later suggested an SPV backed by the boss of Lodha Group, Abhishek Lodha, had pipped Galliard to the post.
We’re told a deal – to a “private development fund” – has now been finalised, with Lodha appointed as Development Manager.
India’s largest property developer is currently grafting away on two other top-end schemes in PCL – Lincoln Square near Covent Garden, and No.1 Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, and has recently reported strong sales at both.
Designed by Squire & Partners the £300m project on Kensington High Street will eventually house 35 private apartments, eight private houses and 20 affordable apartments for the elderly, with facilities including secure underground car parking, a large private swimming pool, gym and spa facility, new cinema, a self-contained office building and ancillary retail units. The historic Art Deco façade of the original cinema building, built in 1926, is being retained and restored. The new owners are said to be “keen to progress” with the redevelopment.
Knight Frank and Savills acted as sales agents for the site.
