Firm confirms talks with contractors for £1.4bn revamp of Brent Cross shopping centre set to begin next year

Brent Cross shopping centre aerial

Retail developer Hammerson has seen pre-tax profit jump 74% to £290m for the first half of 2017, up from £167m.

However, in its results for the six months ended 30 June 2017 the firm also posted a slight drop in gross rental income to £123m, down from £126m.

Hammerson’s portfolio, which includes 17 assets in the UK covering 400,000m2 of retail space, has risen in value by £556m from the beginning of the year to £10.6bn. The firm said this increase was due primarily to to revaluation gains of £188m, capital expenditure of £267m, which included £185m relating to premium outlet acquisitions, and foreign exchange movements of £118m. 

Hammerson’s development pipeline includes the £1.4bn revamp of Brent Cross Shopping Centre, for which a planning application was submitted in May.

Building revealed last month that contractors Laing O’Rourke, Multiplex and Sir Robert McAlpine are vying to build the scheme.

Hammerson has reported that it expects a decision from Barnet council’s planning committee on its proposals in September and said construction could start next summer with completion scheduled for 2022, as well as confirming that it is in talks with contractors.

Hammerson said its estimated development cost to complete the project is in the region of between £475m to £550m.

The firm added that a report on the compulsory purchase order requirements for the entire £4.5bn Brent Cross regeneration scheme by Barnet council had now been submitted to the Secretary of State with a decision expected in September.

Hammerson is also part of a joint venture with Westfield to redevelop Croydon’s Whitgift Centre.

The firm said its total future costs on the scheme are between £650m to £700m and that it expects a decision on its revised outline planning application by autumn this year. The scheme will also see the refurbishment of the Centrale shopping centre and up to 1,000 new homes built.

Hammerson said the earliest start date on site would be next year.

The firm’s third big development scheme in its UK pipeline is Bishopsgate Goodsyard on the edge of the City of London. The 4.2ha site is jointly owned with Ballymore Properties.

A planning application for the scheme which was called in by the mayor of London in September 2015 and deferred in April last year for a year-long redesign, which is now expected to be re-submitted in early 2018 to the mayor.

Elsewhere, Hammerson is progressing plans for an extension to its Italie Deux in Paris and on the outskirts of the capital city of France expects to be on site with a 33,000m2 extension of Les Trois Fontaines in the suburbs of Paris next year. The firm owns ten shopping centres in the country.