Camden News: Sir David Clementi | King’s Cross Regeneration Project | King’s Cross Central Partnership

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Camden News - by PAUL KEILTHY
Published: 12 March 2009

Sir David Clementi

King’s Cross plans ‘will beat recession’

Developers announce £250m investment in project

DEVELOPERS behind the huge King’s Cross regeneration project have insisted they will beat the gloomy economic conditions after putting up a £150million investment.
At a conference in Paris on Tuesday, King’s Cross Central Partnership chairman Sir David Clementi announced that a £100m deal with the University of the Arts, which will have a new campus on the 67-acre site, would be combined with the developers’ own cash to lay down £250m to start work on the site.
The development is slated to bring 2,000 homes as well as offices and shops to the old King’s Cross Railway Lands area and has become an increasingly important focus of the borough’s response to the recession.
Sir David said: “King’s Cross Central is one of the few privately funded major developments which is making progress in these challenging times.
“This funding unlocks King’s Cross, providing the infrastructure for the university, and tees up further development opportunities such as Sainsbury’s, and the first 285 affordable homes.”
The deal comes after speculation last year that the shortage on bank lending, which has crippled the construction industry, had left developers short of £400m to tackle the first phase.
The consortium is made up of Argent, which is backed by the BT Pension Fund, London and Continental Railways, and DH Excel Supply.
A spokeswoman said yesterday (Wednesday) that affordable housing was among the first raft of developments being planned.
She added: “We submitted detailed designs for the first residential buildings to Camden Council only a few weeks ago. Subject to reserved matters approval, construction on these could start later in the year.”
Mayor Boris Johnson publicly welcomed the investment and said he was “delighted to see the private sector playing their part in pushing ahead with major developments”.
But his City Hall administration has come under attack after the council was forced to make up £3.6m of funding at a King’s Cross training centre for construction workers when a grant from the London Development Agency ended this month.
Camden Labour finance chief Theo Blackwell said: “King’s Cross is a strategic site – it shouldn’t be just the Camden taxpayer that has to pay for jobs.”
Campaigners are expected to protest at the opening of the new construction centre by London Deputy Mayor Richard Barnes on March 23.

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