Ballymore Properties signs €92m loan deal for sites next to new US embassy in London

Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Properties has signed an £82 million (€92.2 million) three-year loan with Lloyds Bank commercial real estate in the UK.

The development loan will be used to “bring forward” the company’s 211,000sq ft office building at its Embassy Gardens development in London’s Nine Elms on the south bank of the Thames river.

The 10-storey building, which will be the first office development at Nine Elms, is already “substantially pre-let by Penguin Random House”, a statement said. The project is due for completion in 2019.

"This significant new backing from Lloyds Bank underlines the quality of this transformative development and the wider Embassy Gardens regeneration project. For Ballymore this also marks the start of an important new relationship with Lloyds Bank," said John Mulryan, Ballymore's UK managing director.

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The project itself is a mixed-use scheme located close to the US embassy which will deliver around 2,000 new homes, retail, leisure and recreational space.

‘Viability’

Madeleine McDougall, head of commercial real estate for Lloyds Bank, said the office space in the development is an “important part of its viability and ongoing economic value”.

“Supporting new development like this, which creates jobs and supports growth, evidences our commitment to UK plc,” she said.

Accounts filed in December for the UK arm of the group founded by Sean Mulryan 35 years ago showed it recorded a pretax profit of £518 million (€587 million) in the year ended March 31st, 2017, following a revaluation of some of the group's investment properties, a gain arising on the settlement of financial obligations, and forfeited deposits.

During that period the wider Ballymore group exited Nama after it repaid around €3.2 billion to the State loans agency.

Aside from Embassy Gardens, Ballymore has a number of ongoing UK projects including Royal Wharf, London City Island and Wardian London.