A Singaporean developer has gained consent for a £200m luxury care home development – understood to be the first to be built in central London – a stone’s thrown from Harrods’ iconic 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, has gained consent for 34 two-bed apartments, ranging in size from 1,250 sq ft to 2,110 sq ft, at 28 Pavilion Road, London, SW1.
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.”
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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 135,000 sq ft, has been designed by architect 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.
The development is described by CDL as “a contemporary interpretation of surrounding Queen Anne typology” which it said “provides step-backs and cut-ins as it rises to provide each apartment with outdoor space”.
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 with site connected to Harrods by an underground tunnel now disused and which 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 is the development adviser to Beaumont Properties. Planning advisors were Colliers International and Barton Wilmore.