Croydon’s latest tallest building at 101 George Street dominates the town centre’s skyline
After taking just 35 weeks from the first module being installed to complete “the world’s tallest prefab”, it now seems likely that it will be at least 36 weeks since completion before the first tenants will move in.
Greystar, the US-based owners of the £180million dark twin towers that overshadow central Croydon have today written to “future residents” telling them that they might be able finally to move into their new homes in April – a full nine months after the first tenants had expected to collect the keys to their new homes.
All 546 sky-high apartments at 101 George Street, which the owners have branded “Ten Degrees”, have been empty since July, when building work was thought to have been completed and the first deposits from prospective tenants were accepted.
At nearly 450-feet high, the taller, 44-storey tower has been described as the world’s tallest modular building.
By using prefabricated modules, the build time for the towers was much reduced. Within just 35 weeks of the first module being guided into place in March 2019, building firm Tide Construction were lighting up the nearly-completed towers.
But all those time advantages have since been squandered through delays in getting the towers approved by Croydon Council’s building inspectors.
As exclusively revealed by Inside Croydon, dozens of eager new tenants – many of whom had been given moving-in dates in August last year – despite having paid deposits on the new flats have been forced to place their belongings in storage, extend their existing leases or even been forced to sofa-surf while they have waited for US-based developers Greystar to release their apartments to them.
One-bed apartments in Ten Degrees cost £17,400 per year to rent; three-bed flats are rented out for £26,340 per year.
It took builders just 35 weeks from the first module being installed to completion on 101 George Street. It then took 36 weeks to get the building signed off by council inspectors
Correspondence seen by Inside Croydon from Greystar’s on-site “Ten Degrees Team” told patient prospective tenants that, “Unfortunately we have been notified that the necessary sign-off from the council has still not happened due to the council’s backlog from covid-19 and this may cause a delay in the handover.”
In January, the council’s planning portal showed a number of planning conditions for 101 George Street had yet to be discharged, suggesting that the developers and their builders had been slow to fulfill their obligations.
Today’s cheery little note from Greystar says, “We have received an update from the contractor and based on the latest timeline, we expect the building to be ready during April.”
But that doesn’t mean that tenants will be able to move in in April.
The Greystar note continues, “As there is still some uncertainty around the timeline, we are unable to confirm your move in date at this time. We will get in touch with you again in March about this.
“We appreciate that you may have been hoping to move in sooner and we are sorry that this has not been possible.”
It seems very likely that Greystar have a waiting list of additional prospective tenants. “As a reminder, you may cancel your reservation at any time,” they write. “Simply get in touch and we will refund your reservation fee.
“Thank you so much for your patience, and we look forward to welcoming you to your new home at Ten Degrees soon.”
One long-suffering customer of Greystar, who has already suffered repeatedly postponed moving-in dates, was not getting up their hopes just yet. “We’ll see,” they said.
After all this time, it had better be worth the wait.”
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