Respected trade magazine Property Week is reporting that after almost 14 years of inflicting development blight on Croydon town centre, without ever laying a single brick, Westfield could be about to flog off their interests in south London once and for all, in order to plug a financing hole in another scheme in Hamburg.
Here’s the news: Property Week‘s Westfield report, published last night
Initial suggestions were that Westfield – in the form of Paris-based Unibail Rodamco Westfield – were denying the Property Week story.
That seems curious since the multinational megabillion development company had been approached by the journal before publication and declined to comment.
The Property Week story is based on URW’s own, latest investor report, which says that the Croydon site is “being considered for ‘co-development or future disposal’.”
Any sale of Westfield’s stake in Croydon would come as a hammerblow to the borough’s Mayor Jason Perry, who has staked everything on being able to portray himself as the local politician who delivered the scheme – or at least delivered the third version of its planning permission.
A significant problem for Westfield, in large part thanks to their own commercial indecision and inertia, is that Croydon is not an attractive asset any longer.
Westfield had spent years screwing down the value of the Hammerson bit of their “Croydon Partnership” – the Centrale shopping centre – until the distressed mall operators sold up in 2023. Now, the market has done much the same to Westfield.
Veteran property journalist Peter Bill commented this morning that any Croydon deal “will need to be a bargain basement sale”.
It all suggests yet more uncertainty and delay for what was presented in 2012 as a £1.4billion redevelopment of Croydon town centre that would be delivered in 2017.
Detail-lite: with their Masterplan Framework, all Westfield has said is that they want to build some flats
After being given effective carte blanche by the council’s planning department with their latest “Masterplan Framework” in February this year, a formal planning application was supposed to be submitted by URW by the end of this year.
In interviews with Inside Croydon, senior figures from the site’s freeholders, the Whitgift Foundation, had revealed that any scheme that comes forward would now be residential-based, with 3,000 homes delivered as a private-public partnership, with Westfield bailed out with millions of housing funding from central government and the Greater London Authority.
Property Week reports that Westfield “is considering selling its Croydon development site following a £448million overspend at its Westfield Hamburg-Überseequartier development”.
They report: “The firm’s masterplan to transform Croydon town centre, including the Whitgift and Centrale shopping centres, into a mixed-use destination was unveiled last November. However, it is now looking increasingly unlikely URW will be able to deliver the plans alone.”
Hamburg is to get something very much like what Westfield first promised for Croydon (though without the cruise ship terminal), with “170 stores, 40 restaurants and bars, an art museum, three hotels and a cruise ship terminal when complete”, with the price tag now at £1.86billion.
“URW now needs to complete €2.2billion (£1.9billion) of disposals across this year and early 2026 as a result of its capital allocation strategy, with €1billion (£860million) of sales already secured, the firm told investors at its most recent investor day,” Property Week reports.
URW investors were told that the company would now have “a focus on improving existing assets and an aversion to taking on ‘direct construction risk on large-scale development projects’.” It is all very much like 2020, when URW removed Croydon from its development “pipeline” altogether.
“The firm will lack cash to develop the Croydon masterplan without major capital recycling, opening the possibility of the site being sold to cover the overspend at Hamburg, a source told Property Week.”
The magazine quotes an unnamed source: “URW needs to crystalise value, and the Croydon site could provide that while putting off potential future development costs…
“Opportunities are being presented to market across the portfolio, and Croydon could be in play.”
Read more: Perry’s council endorses scheme for 3,000 flats in town centre
Read more: ‘It has to be’: Westfield scheme needs millions of public money
Read more: The Masterplan has just one aim, to make money for Westfield
Read more: Westfield boss says Croydon scheme could take 15 more years
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