A luxury care home development with a potential value of up to £200m, (approximately €232m), the first-ever to be built in Central London, has been given planning consent by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council. The development is strategically located just two minutes’ walk from Harrods Department Store in Knightsbridge.
Singapore-listed City Developments Limited (CDL), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Beaumont Properties Limited, represented in the UK by Dartmouth Capital Advisors Limited, received consent for 34 two-bed apartments, ranging in size from 1,250m² to 2,110m², at 28 Pavilion Road, London, SW1.
Mr Kwek Leng Beng, CDL Executive Chairman said, “We have worked closely with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Council to draw up a scheme that will appeal to discerning residents in retirement. The Borough has a significant stable, ageing, demographic that is asset rich yet whose needs are insufficiently provided for by the current housing stock. We aim to provide a community style of living for this group, supported by excellent on-site medical care, close to local amenities, shops and restaurants.”
The luxury care home will offer apartments for sale on 999-year leases. Facilities within the development include a luxury spa, swimming pool, communal library, private doctor’s surgery, 24-hour concierge service, dedicated nurse care rooms and car parking. The extra-care will be provided by private nursing and home care specialist – Draycott Nursing & Care.
The six- and seven-storey scheme, with gross floor area of about 135,000m² has been designed by architects PDP London in collaboration with Hamilton Architects involving the demolition and redevelopment of a 1970s brutalist car park. The island site provides a central courtyard which is accessible to all residents with a new shared public realm contributing to a sense of community and promoting social interaction.
The development, a contemporary interpretation of surrounding Queen Anne typology, provides step-backs and cut-ins as it rises to provide each apartment with outdoor space. The floor plan also decreases in size as it rises, providing the upper levels with large roof terraces and opportunities to reduce the urban heat island effect through the use of green roofs, increased biodiversity and a sustainable urban drainage system.
The Royal Borough, in a recent housing assessment document, identified that those aged 65 years old and over, will increase from 14% in 2012 to 23% in 2037. The population of elderly in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea will be significantly higher in proportion when compared to London as a whole (17%) and the neighbouring boroughs of Hammersmith and Fulham (16%) and Westminster (18%).
The scheme is located in the heart of Knightsbridge, adjacent to some of the top shopping streets in the world including Sloane Street and minutes’ walk from Knightsbridge Underground, Hyde Park and the museums of South Kensington. The site is connected to Harrods by an underground tunnel now disused and there are no plans to reinstate it. It is also a short stroll away from Millennium Hotel, Knightsbridge, which is part of CDL’s London-listed subsidiary, Millennium & Copthorne Hotels plc.
Dartmouth Capital Advisors Limited is the development advisor to Beaumont Properties Limited. Planning advisors were Colliers and Barton Wilmore.
