OakNorth Bank completes £10.3m refurbishment loan for vacant office building in Croydon

By Bridging Loan Directory 4th March 2021

OakNorth Bank – the UK bank powered by OakNorth – has completed a £10.3m loan to a private property company to refurbish Electric House in Croydon.

Croydon Council granted planning permission last year to convert the four-storey building for London South Bank University (LSBU), with additions including a lecture theatre, classrooms and a cafe.

The university has signed a 15‐year lease on the 56,000 sq. ft. office building which is a 5-minute walk from Croydon station.

The new campus will be for students studying health, social care, business and finance, with courses expected to start in September this year.

The campus will be LSBU’s second outside of central London, with the other being in Havering. The new campus is part of the Mayor of London’s £1.4bn scheme to regenerate Croydon town centre which was announced in 2018.

This is part of a broader £5.25bn regeneration programme in the Borough which will include a retail and leisure complex, seven new hotels, almost 3m sq. ft. of Grade A office space and 10,500 new homes.

The borrower was advised by Ciel Capital, the innovative real estate investor, joint venture equity partner and asset manager.

Commenting on the deal, Deepesh Thakrar, Senior Debt Finance Director at OakNorth Bank, said:

“Projects like this are what regeneration schemes are all about – by refurbishing this building which has been vacant for years, the developer is bringing real value to the community.

We’re delighted to be involved by providing the capital needed to get the refurbishment completed this year.

This is another vote of confidence for Croydon, as LSBU’s new campus will bring new education and career opportunities to the borough, deliver more local jobs and provide a boost to the local economy.”

Vedrana Riley, CEO at Ciel Capital, commented:

“We were delighted to be selected as the advisors for this project – it is an exciting refurbishment in a part of London that is set to change dramatically over the next decade.

Having worked with Deepesh and the team at OakNorth Bank before, we knew we could rely on them to be fast, flexible and collaborative, and once again, they didn’t disappoint.”