Finance for three of the properties has been provided by Barclays and Lloyds which will enable Pure Student Living to start the £37 million construction at the Pure Hammersmith site, the former Hammersmith Palais concert venue and nightclub, and its Pure City development on Goswell Road in Islington. Investec has also provided a loan facility for Pure Bankside, a £15m project on Ewer Street in Southwark.
Pure Hammersmith will provide 418 rooms and is ideally located given the extreme shortage of purpose built student accommodation in West London. Ground works have already commenced on the site and the property, which will incorporate many features from the former iconic music venue, is expected to complete for the 2013 academic year. Pure Bankside, in Ewer Street in Southwark, which is located close to major institutions including King’s College London and the London School of Economics, will provide 150 rooms designed as single ensuite studios and will be complete for the 2013 academic year.
The Pure City site was acquired from City University London and Carlyle has since worked closely with the University and the London Borough of Islington to secure planning consent to develop the existing outdated student accommodation and sports centre. Works have started and once complete in September 2014 the project will consist of three new buildings, providing 805 rooms of student accommodation, together with a new 30,000 sq ft sports hall and gym as well as 23,000 sq ft of space for academic use which are pre-let to the University.
Pure Student Living was founded by global alternative asset manager, The Carlyle Group, which has pioneered student housing in The Netherlands through its The Student Hotel brand, and Generation Estates, whose management team has been responsible for circa. 5,000 high-quality, purpose built student beds in London since 2004.
Robert Hodges, Managing Director at The Carlyle Group, said: “The bank financing we have secured means that we are able to start building out the rest of our current development pipeline. In today’s constrained lending markets, our ability to attract £125 million of funding for three major projects demonstrates the strong potential of this asset class and of our projects in particular.”
