ELSEWHERE: Developers queue up to give Croydon a facelift


Yet it is now host to a feeding frenzy by a slew of top property companies, all of which are keen to give Croydon a facelift of its own.

The cast includes Lend Lease and Westfield, the rival Australian property giants; Minerva, the former owner of Allders, the collapsed department store chain; and Stanhope, run by Sir Stuart Lipton, former head of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, the architecture watchdog.

Croydon has been discussed - without irony - as the new Manhattan of south London, having been singled out by Ken Livingstone, London's mayor, as a suitable place for more skyscrapers. But it bears a closer resemblance to suburban New Jersey. Various plans for revamped shopping centers, acres of gleaming offices and soaring towers remain on the drawing board, bogged down by disputes.

One executive with plans for the area says it is no coincidence property companies are attracted to the area. "Croydon has a fantastic catchment area, is affluent, 15 minutes from central London and is expecting a significant expansion of residential (development)," he says. "Rental levels, subdued there for a long time, will jump when these developments happen."

At the heart of Croydon lies the Whitgift Shopping Centre, home to 120 stores featuring all the usual suspects such as Marks and Spencer and BHS. This complex is at the centre of an intense bidding battle.

Westfield has joined up with Royal London and the Whitgift Foundation, which co-own 50 per cent of the shopping centre, to bid for the other half, owned by the Whitgift Partnership. But they will have to outbid half a dozen rival bidders that put in offers of just over Pounds 200m last week.

Arlington Property Investors, which manages the centre on behalf of the Whitgift Partnership, has been seeking permission to expand on to a neighbouring site occupied by Allders but Minerva, which has the controlling interest in the site, has plans of its own. Minerva bought a controlling stake in Allders primarily to secure the Allders pitch.

But Allders has since gone into administration and questions remain over whether Minerva is liable for the retailer's pension deficit. It is understood the property group is in talks with John Lewis to replace Allders on the site - but for now the Croydon store is being run by administrators.

Croydon's council wants the Allders store to form part of Park Place, a new shopping centre planned by Minerva and Lend Lease, its partner, on the opposite side to the Whitgift. This is why it has turned down Arlington's application for the Whitgift extension on to the Allders site.

The next few months will see much manoeuvring to secure control of the site. Intriguingly it is believed Minerva is one of the bidders for the 50 per cent stake in the Whitgift centre. If successful, it could combine Whitgift with Park Place to become one of the biggest shopping centers in the UK.

But Arlington has not given up. Its proposed expansion to Whitgift, called Bishop's Court 2, is now the subject of an appeal and the planning inspector is expected to report to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister at the end of April.

Elsewhere in Croydon, Arrowcroft and Stanhope, two private groups, are fighting to develop rival mixed use schemes on the same site - Croydon Gate, next to Croydon's main station. Arrowcroft has the council's backing, partly because it includes plans for an arena, but Stanhope and Schroders, its partner, own most of the land. Relations between the two sides are said to be acrimonious.

Meanwhile Croydon Gate will have a new neighbor, Altitude 25, a 90m pounds, 25-storey tower to be built by Irish developers Howard Holdings.