PLP Architecture/dbox
Constructing: A rendering depicts the project Carlyle is working on in London.
Carlyle unveils London project plans
By Arleen Jacobius | November 12, 2012
Carlyle Group is planning to turn two central London office buildings into a mixture of residential, new offices, retail and cultural space along the River Thames.
The two are part of a six-property portfolio the Washington-based alternatives investment firm bought for £671 million ($1.08 billion) in July from a troubled commercial mortgage-backed security, confirmed Richard Sunderland, London-based spokesman for Carlyle Group in an e-mail.
Funding for the purchase came from Carlyle's third pan-European real estate fund, Carlyle European Real Estate Partners III, which closed in June 2008 with e2.2 billion ($2.82 billion).
Carlyle already has sold one of the properties, an office building at 60 Victoria Embankment, to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which was the building's sole lessee.
Executives now are waiting for a permit to turn the two adjacent landmark London office buildings — the Ludgate House and Sampson House — on the south bank of the Thames into a 1.4 million-square-foot residential and office mixed-use project.
PLP Architecture did the design, but Carlyle does not yet have a construction partner, Mr. Sunderland said.
This article originally appeared in the November 12, 2012 print issue as, "Carlyle unveils London project plans".
