Reading: Lincoln MGT gearing up to start major Station Hill development next year

Lincoln MGT, the joint venture partnership between Lincoln Property Company and MGT Investment Management, will lodge plans later this year for a first 250,000 sq ft proposed speculative office development as part of its £750 million Station Hill redevelopment of the gateway site surrounding Reading’s station.

Lincoln MGT, a joint venture between Lincoln Property Company and MGT Investment Management backed by Baupost, bought the six-and-a-half-acre Station Hill development site - one of the South East's largest development opportunities - from Sackville Developments Reading (SDRL), a joint venture between Stanhope and Benson Elliot, in June 2018.

The group has been working up a masterplan and will formally submit plans later this year for an overall scheme comprising 1,000 to 1,200 residential units, up to 600,000 sq ft of offices, a hotel as well as over 50,000 sq ft of retail and leisure. Its revised plans will include detailed proposals for the first office building which it plans to start building speculatively next year.

The scheme will replace the previous consent for around 900,000 sq ft of development, principally offices, alongside 86,000 sq ft of shops, 13,000 sq ft of leisure and 300 flats.

Reading council has already unanimously backed a first phase of residential accommodation to deliver 550 homes for the private and affordable rental market, with demolition work already beginning and work scheduled to start on site next year.

Speaking on video at JLL’s Western Corridor presentation in the West End, Alex Aitchison, director of development at Lincoln Property Company UK, said that following the recent public consultation for the next phases of development, it planned to lodge plans for a 250,000 sq ft first phase of offices before the year-end alongside the hotel.

He added that Lincoln MGT was seeking other speculative office development opportunities in London and the South East.

Source: CoStar