Mace
Investment report David Grover COO for Investment
2013 has been a strategically important year for the investment business. As part of a consortium led by Robson Asset Management (RAM), we have successfully completed, opened and re-financed the Great Northern Hotel at Kings Cross, London, for Aries GNH. It demonstrates Mace’s ability to take early risk and then deliver a quality product that is both exceptional in its design and already as a consequence of that, fast becoming a recognised destination in its own right, underpinned with strong trading figures. We expect to fully exit this investment over the next 12 months. In the spring we completed the Assam Place project, a joint venture with Alternative Developments. The 334 room student accommodation project in Aldgate, London was successfully let to students for the 2013/14 academic year. In December 2013 we concluded a long lease deal with Hult Business School who are now fitting out their London headquarters in the building and who will also take full occupation of all the bedrooms during the summer of 2014. The project has recently been refinanced with RBS and is asset-managed by Mace. Our student scheme in Edinburgh of 320 units, Deaconess House, has also progressed well with completion expected on time by early summer 2014. This is a forward fund and sale to The University of Edinburgh, capitalising fully on our land acquisition and planning skills and the initial development vision we had for the site. The Greenwich Square project in joint venture with Hadley Property Group, comprises 645 new homes, has progressed exceptionally well both in construction terms and sales, which have exceed our business plan and we have now exchanged on c. £29m of private units, leaving just a handful of flats in our first three years of build remaining unsold. In 2014 we launch our maisonette and town house products and early demand for those is already strong. During 2014 we move to Phase Two, the fully consented 284 unit block which forms the final phase of the development and we expect that to respond well to a rising market in Greenwich.
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