Interesting piece here:
Taylor McWilliam, the Texan property developer, friend of Prince Harry and DJ, has been no stranger to gentrification battles since he
bought large swaths of Brixton, in south London, with the backing of a New York hedge fund.
Since he bought Brixton market in 2018, McWilliam has rarely been out of the news, with campaigners claiming the tourist-destination image of the market is undermining local businesses and the character of the area. This summer he hit the headlines when the
campaign to save Nour Cash & Carry from eviction unexpectedly went global after a protest during an online charity concert featuring a DJ set by McWilliam, in front of an audience of more than 1,000 people.
A much-loved family business, Nour has been
saved, but McWilliams is once again the focus of huge local opposition, this time against plans to build a 20-storey tower, designed by the British Ghanaian architect David Adjaye. Council officers have
recommended that the tower go ahead on the basis that it will regenerate the area and provide jobs and a new public realm.
Yet prior to the council’s forthcoming decision on Tuesday,
more than 1,000 objections had been lodged, including from the local MP, ward councillors and a 7,000 strong petition against the scheme.
McWilliams, with his partying and
royal connections, is the perfect target for community anger. But the story of a colourful developer at loggerheads with local activists obscures the bigger picture, which is
the effect that global finance, in the shape of hedge funds, private equity and global property development companies, is having on places such as Brixton. Although McWilliams announced that he had bought Brixton market through his company Hondo Enterprises, the legal owners are two special-purpose vehicles backed by the New York hedge fund
Angelo Gordon, while the fate of the Brixton arches was determined by US private equity.
Earlier this year, Lambeth council appointed Tom Branton as
director of regeneration, giving an indication of its vision for the area. Branton has previously
worked for Southwark council, as project manager of the controversial
Elephant & Castle regeneration scheme, carried out in partnership with the Australia-based developer Lendlease. He moved on from the council to
work for Lendlease, where he was
development manager on the same project, Elephant Park. Built on the site of the
demolished Heygate estate, Elephant Park includes nearly 3,000 luxury apartments, of which only
82 are social housing. Of the properties built in the first phase,
most were sold to foreign investors.
Branton later went with
Lendlease to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to work on the Tun Razak Exchange, described as an Asian version of Canary Wharf.
On Tuesday a London council decides over a 20-storey tower in Brixton – a tale familiar to cities from Manchester to Sydney, says author and academic Anna Minton
www.theguardian.com
www.nytimes.com
www.nasdaq.com
beta.companieshouse.gov.uk
www.brixtonbuzz.com
www.propertyweek.com
