Student digs developer Urbanest has agreed a £125m loan with M&G Investments to finance a mixed-use development scheme in the City of London.
The deal enables the development of 654 beds for students from King’s College London.
In one of the largest deals of its kind this year, M&G will fund the construction of Urbanest’s Aldgate scheme, to be known as UrbanestCity. The scheme will also provide 60,000 sq. ft of office accommodation, along with an incubator space for entrepreneurial start-up businesses through a lease to King’s College Entrepreneurship Institute.
The £125m loan will mature in 2023 and will convert from a development to investment finance facility once construction is complete.
Concealed beneath the Aldgate development are the remains of a bastion tower and part of the 4th century wall that once encircled the Roman City of Londinium.
Vicky Skinner, chief financial officer at Urbanest, said: “This is Urbanest’s most ambitious student-led mixed-use development to date, providing a unique blend of student housing, heritage, entrepreneurial innovation, commerce and leisure space uses which will sit alongside and complement each other in the completed scheme. We are delighted to be working with M&G and KCL again and our aspiration with Urbanest City is to add another landmark location within our expanding PBSA portfolio.”
Adam Willis, associate director in M&G’s Real Estate Finance team, added: “Urbanest continues to provide fantastic facilities for students in London and we are delighted to expand our relationship and enable the construction of this exciting development. We continue to see increasing demand for student accommodation in the capital and this deal provides our institutional investors with access to attractive returns secured against high quality real estate in London’s city centre.”
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