Fortwell funds £50m of development in one week

by: Heather Greig-Smith
  • 24/10/2016
  • 0
Fortwell funds £50m of development in one week
Fortwell Capital, the high-value short and medium-term real estate lender, has provided over £50m of funding in a single week across the residential and commercial sectors.

The five transactions include £30m for a development scheme in the London Borough of Hackney. The mixed-use residential and commercial scheme in London Fields includes permission for 42 upscale residential properties, plus additional commercial space.

The second transaction, for a gross value of £7m, was a refinance bridge provided against a high-end residential development in Battersea, London, at 75% loan-to-value. The other three transactions – for £5.6m, £4.4m and £4.2m respectively – were for specialist commercial development projects outside the M25.

The Hackney scheme, for which planning consent has been granted, will be developed by Gold Section Developments on the site of a vacant warehouse. The residential element includes 12 one-bed, 16 two-bed and 14 three-bed high-specification apartments complemented by 20 commercial studios. Completion is scheduled for February 2018.

Fortwell Capital has provided Gold Section with a gross advance of £29.5m over a period of 24 months on a loan-to-costs basis of 81%. The loan-to-gross development value is not being revealed but Fortwell said the figure is at the higher end of its lending parameters.

Colin Sanders, Fortwell Capital’s chief executive officer, said: “As might be expected in the current environment, this transaction was not without its difficulties. We stepped in at a time of pre- and post-referendum jitters among some funders, but we liked what we saw.”

Richard Fine, principal at Brotherton Real Estate, which introduced Gold Section to Fortwell, said: “This is a really exciting development in an ever improving fringe location by a seasoned developer. Nonetheless, Brexit did have an impact and while some lenders in the market were pulling back, the team at Fortwell gave Gold Section and Brotherton all the confidence we needed that they would deliver on time.”

The deals follow the appointment in August of two senior development finance professionals at Fortwell, when the lender stated its intention to expand in London and the South East. Fortwell was previously known as Omni Capital Partners but was rebranded in February by its parent company CPC Group. The group still owns a retail finance division, lending to UK retailers under the Omni brand.

There are 0 Comment(s)

You may also be interested in