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Council seek developer for "vibrant" Town Hall area building scheme.

Gramsci

Gramsci

Well-Known Member
See here for Lambeth Council funky website to entice a big developer to build new offices for the Council around the Town Hall. Its called "SW2 Enterprise Centre".

In return for building new offices for the Council a developer will get to keep the remaining land on the site for its own use. Which can be retail and housing. Also the developer will be given International House ( Council offices behind Rec) at completion of scheme. It can redevelop that site or get ( apply I assume) change of use of existing building. Which is likely to mean residential as that is what developers go for now. The developer will also get opportunity to buy Phoenix House in Vauxhall which will be sold off by Council.

There is article in Brixton Blog about it (Lambeth Council seeks development partner for new town hall ‘campus’). It raises issue about lack of consultation and comments from Transition Town about lack of ensuring green sustainable development on site.

This site is part of the Brixton Masterplan. The Council has started to consult on the Masterplan again , after a long interval, about the SPDs for the masterplan ( see Future Brixton thread). Since the Masterplan was agreed by Cabinet there has been no further consultation on this major site in the Masterplan. Yet this flashly website has been produced for the benefit of developers who may show an interest in the site.

The Masterplan says the old offices around Town Hall ( which is architecturally protected building) will be redeveloped in these ways:

Hambrook house
to include retail uses at ground floor and upper level child- focussed health provision.

Ivor house
Ivor House and warehouse to the rear in line with conservation guidance to provide a new health facility and neighbourhood energy centre.

page 164 of Brixton Masterplan

Also page 124 of masterplan says that the site will be

community/social: The Town Hall area is positioned within the masterplan as a civic,community and cultural hub, serving the wider area through social infrastructure provision whilst offering a series of key town centre cultural destinations to ensure activity and investment in this key regeneration area and create synergy with the cultural uses at Windrush Square.

see pages 122 to 129 for more on this site in the Brixton Masterplan.

A lot of this seems to have disappeared from the proposals that the Council is trying to get a developer interested in. In particular there is no mention of health provision or a neighbourhood energy centre.

Nor is there any mention of whether there will be affordable housing on this site.

The Cooperative Council is only mentioned when the developer is requested to make a Cooperative space:rolleyes:
"Development of the SW2 Enterprise Centre site must re-enforce Lambeth's commitment to The Cooperative Council, which is a policy that puts at its heart accessibility and collaboration with the community. The design and operation of the development is an opportunity to put this into practice by creating a civic place where the public, users and residents can integrate with and have visibility of civic functions"
There is nothing on the website about consulting the community about this development.
 
Might be worth checking if this is a PFI scheme. It sounds similar. At best it is an exercise in asset stripping by the council - understandable given that they have had cuts in their budget from government. At worst it is an exercise in asset stripping by a PFI company who will continue to make money in regular payments over the years for council use of the new offices.
 
No its not PFI scheme. At least there is nothing about that in website. Its based around swapping assets. The developer will build the scheme and in exchange the Council will give the developer assets in land that it owns. So either the developer will come out well or not depending on the figures. Cant see how it will work but Im no expert on this kind of deal. The Council also say they are prepared to use CPO powers to make the scheme work. So woe betide anyone who gets in the way.

See here:

Lambeth owns freehold and long leasehold interests in the site and can offer its partner certainty and control during the development period and ultimately ownership of the non Lambeth accommodation, which releases value for its partner. Additionally Lambeth owned International House will be transferred to its partner following relocation of staff. It is available for change of use or development to release further value. The final element of the funding strategy will be the sale of Phoenix House in Vauxhall, which is expected to be a separate transaction outside of this partnership. Lambeth's objective is to occupy new or refurbished offices enabling the Council to operate in new ways, encompassing cultural change in the workplace and utilising contemporary and flexible working office practices.
The construction of Lambeth's accommodation is expected to be funded through a combination of
  • The value created from the development of surplus accommodation on the SW2 Enterprise Centre site for residential and commercial purposes.
  • The returns from the development of International House, which will become surplus following the consolidation.
  • Capital receipt from the sale of Phoenix House, Vauxhall following relocation of staff to the new development.
 
The same page has pdf linking to office accommodation document. Which says that:

3.2 It should be noted that consultation is scheduled to take place in
summer 2012 on the Brixton Supplementary Planning Document
(SPD). This will make clear the Council’s and community’s
expectations for the future development of Brixton, set out any local
constraints and advise what improvements the Council will want to see
in the town centre, including the Town Hall Triangle site.
 
Gramsci said:
Hambrook house
to include retail uses at ground floor and upper level child- focussed health provision.
Click to expand...
Just thought people might like to know that Hambrook House was originally the sales HQ for a pump manufacturer supplying pumps to the Sudan and other far flung parts of the Empire. I know that because I used to live in Effra Court and the late owner of No1 Effra Court used to work for them back in the 1950s
Dale Martin the wrestling promoter also lived in Effra Court at that time - but that's another story!
 
So how long has Lambeth had the freehold of International House to play with - I am sure that around about the Millennium someone told me Lambeth only had it on a long lease?

Or was that it a sale and leaseback dating back to the Ted Knight era? (The complex off balance sheet financial engineering deals done by Lambeth in the 1980s make some subsequent PFI contracts look simple).
 
lang rabbie said:
So how long has Lambeth had the freehold of International House to play with - I am sure that around about the Millennium someone told me Lambeth only had it on a long lease?

Or was that it a sale and leaseback dating back to the Ted Knight era? (The complex off balance sheet financial engineering deals done by Lambeth in the 1980s make some subsequent PFI contracts look simple).
Click to expand...

Do you have any idea how they work out a deal like this LR? Seems to me there could be a lot of pitfalls. It depends on the value of the assets versus the cost to the developer of building Council accomodation.

The developer may want change of use for International House. The Council is going to be put in a position of agreeing to what a developer wants rather than the merits of change of use or redevelopment.

Also International House is also part of Brixton Masterplan area so this transfer will affect the Masterplan. Have not looked that up yet.
 
Enabling future investment in Brixton Central Report that went to Cabinet today confirms that the Council will need to pay a one off capital sum to buy out the headlease on International House. which will them mean that the Council would no longer have to pay £754k a year for the remaining 27 years of the under-lease.

This strongly suggests that it was indeed a sale and leaseback negotiated in the days of Red Ted.
 
lang rabbie said:
Enabling future investment in Brixton Central Report that went to Cabinet today confirms that the Council will need to pay a one off capital sum to buy out the headlease on International House. which will them mean that the Council would no longer have to pay £754k a year for the remaining 27 years of the under-lease.

This strongly suggests that it was indeed a sale and leaseback negotiated in the days of Red Ted.
Click to expand...

Any idea why this didn't happen earlier?
 
Winot said:
Any idea why this didn't happen earlier?
Click to expand...
Presumably because it is only now that they can sell the site on for oodles of dosh to a residential developer that the council can make a business case to borrow the cash needed for the lump sum buyout of the lease -which I imagine has to be well over £10m.
 
lang rabbie said:
Enabling future investment in Brixton Central Report that went to Cabinet today confirms that the Council will need to pay a one off capital sum to buy out the headlease on International House. which will them mean that the Council would no longer have to pay £754k a year for the remaining 27 years of the under-lease.

This strongly suggests that it was indeed a sale and leaseback negotiated in the days of Red Ted.
Click to expand...

Pretty crap deal for the Council.

1.6 The Council owns the freehold to International House. A private company has a 109-
year peppercorn lease, and the Council has a 27-year full repairing underlease,
based upon a renegotiation in 1989 to extend a previous agreement originally signed
by the Council in 1975. The underlease currently costs £754k per annum and will rise
with inflation each year. International House is currently fully occupied as Council
offices. As part of the Your New Town Hall development and associated relocation of
Council staff to the new building, International Houseis likely to be surplus to
requirements in the next 2-4 years.
Click to expand...
 
lang rabbie said:
Enabling future investment in Brixton Central Report that went to Cabinet today confirms that the Council will need to pay a one off capital sum to buy out the headlease on International House. which will them mean that the Council would no longer have to pay £754k a year for the remaining 27 years of the under-lease.

This strongly suggests that it was indeed a sale and leaseback negotiated in the days of Red Ted.
Click to expand...

I thought that International House was to be part payment for the developer taking on the Town Hall scheme. I assume this paragraph says that was changed. Its now part of the Brixton Central masterplan:

1.8 The Cabinet noted at its meeting on 4 November 2013, “the future development,
disposal or otherwise of International House would be removed from the work of the
development partner to enable the opportunities to be optimised under the Future
Brixton programme. The Office Accommodation Strategy continues to be based on
delivering savings through vacating the building.”
Click to expand...

BTW lang rabbie thanks for putting this doc up. Its very useful to know what the Council is thinking of doing on the site.
 
Last edited:
From the report looks like this is the Council thinking on the future of the International House site:
2.6 Further to this, there is already evidence in the north of the borough to support the
principle that obsolete office buildings are being replaced by high quality mixed use
development. This is not only reflective of the office market, but the way that modern
cities are evolving as people change the way they work and live.
Click to expand...
 
Also this is important comment in the report:

2.12 The building occupies a prominent location in Brixton and as such its future is important in sign posting regeneration in the immediate area, and delivering much needed opportunities.
Click to expand...

Really hoping that the Council will not just flog off site to a developer. Though the report suggests that this may happen.

At the Brixton Central Masterplan consultations there have been no concrete suggestions from officers of how to safeguard Council assets (ie our assets) and use them to deliver "much needed opportunities". Which is why people like me are not happy with how consultations are going.
 
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