Tonight:
4°c
East London millionaire Jack Petchey won't want to recall a property deal done with the King of Belgravia in the spring of 2007. But this tale of our times is worth repeating. For the story, which surfaced in the Chancery court a couple of weeks ago, has everything except a real royal connection.
The said “King” is Guy de Havillande. He is being chased by property broker Abdallah Radd, who told the judge that he is owed £2 million in commission, after engineering the £100 million sale of a clutch of posh flats and homes that were owned by de Havillande in and around Belgravia.
The judge agreed with Radd. But failing to turn up in court will not have helped de Havillande's case. His former lawyer Malcolm Bell told the court the man himself went incommunicado in December 2006 and is now only contactable through his G-mail account.
Guy de Havillande was more in the public eye in 2004. That was when the then 39-year-old paid Lingfield racecourse a reported £50,000 to name an Oaks trial race after his fiancée.
This stray fact surfaced again in April 2007, when the Daily Telegraph suggested the man they dubbed the King of Belgravia was being chased by two building societies who were threatening to repossess his properties. In fact, by then, a deal to sell the 30-odd properties containing many more flats was almost done.
That deal was discussed seven months earlier, says Radd. The court papers show that in September 2006 he met with the elusive buy-to-let landlord at his place in Paradise Walk, a very posh street, just off Chelsea Embankment. Radd said he had a buyer for the properties, most of which lay within mile of where they were talking.
After some bartering Radd said it was agreed he would get 2% of the gross sale proceeds for brokering the deal. Radd then introduced de Havillande to Broadgate Properties and one of its directors, Barry Polley.
In early October Radd was told the deal would be done.
But in early 2007 the homes were sold, without Radd knowing, to an Isle of Man-based joint venture company called.
This was a company set up by two directors of Broadgate and Jack Petchey, 83, the former car trader who has built up an £800 million fortune trading property.
The judge concluded that the link to Broadgate meant that Radd had indirectly introduced the sale to Fenland and was therefore due £1,999,000 commission on the sale, which raised £99,607,000. Interest on the non-payment of that commission has added another £230,000 to the amount Radd can claim from de Havillande, a figure that is climbing at a rate of £440 a day.
How many more days will elapse before Radd gets his money is anyone's guess. For the court documents make it clear that de Havillande made almost nothing from the transactions.
The judgement shows that there was just £407 between the sale price of nearly £100 million and the amount paid to de Havillande's lenders.
In other words, Jack Petchey and his associates did the deal by simply paying off the mortgages. It may of course have felt like a good deal at the time. But thanks to the collapse of the market it will not feel like a good one now. De Havillande is best off out of it.
Raymond model still in good shape
There was some surprise among staff at Soho Estates at the news that their old boss, the famously frugal Paul Raymond, had left his secretary Marie Todman £10,000 in his will.
But Todman has more than repaid the gesture. She refused to sell her story to the Mail on Sunday, which reported this week that the man who owned most of Soho had left two of his granddaughters
£75 million.
But Fawn James, 22, and India Rose, 17, will get a lot more besides. Raymond, who died aged 82 on 2 March, left a property company in robust health, as the accounts for 2007 published last week show. The facts and figures for Soho Estates Holdings will make other hard-pressed property bosses weep.
It's not the figures showing profits up £1 million to £18 million. It's not even the fact that the £292 million worth of properties were last valued in 2003. Nor is it the figure showing the business had £35 million sitting in the bank. Rivals' real anguish will come with the news that Soho Estates hasn't borrowed a single penny from the banks.
When Raymond died the question arose: would the company change? Well, in the past few months Soho Estates has moved from grubby offices in grimy Archer Street to the refurbished third floor of a block it owns overlooking Leicester Square. The 22 employees now enjoy the normal delights of any modern office: espresso coffee machines, decent office furniture and even the odd plasma screens to watch TV.
But the truth is this move was planned before Raymond's death. And the family is still firmly in control. The only change in directorship is the appointment of Fawn James in place of her grandfather. Her father John is still on the board. The company is still overseen by Raymond's nephew Mark Quinn, who has run the business day-to-day for many years.
At the time of Raymond's death there was speculation that Soho Estates might begin to selectively develop parts of the rundown estate. But there is little sign of that so far. In fact the savage downturn in the economy has vindicated the Raymond model: forget the banks, pay cash, collect the rents and sit on the assets.
If it stays that way the girls will be able to pass on a lot more than £75 million to their children and perhaps a bit more than £10,000 to their loyal secretaries?
New market day on the way for Smithfield?
The citizens of Smithfield may now get a mini-Leadenhall market rather than a maxi-office block at the long-derelict western end of the meat market.
This week, developer Thornfield Properties formally abandoned plans for a 380,000 sq ft office block. Svelte American architect Lee Polisano, of US mega-practice KPF, has been replaced by John McAslan, a rumpled Scot whose medium-sized practice is in a hard-to-find mews off Holland Park Avenue.
This switch was forced on Thornfield and its 50/50 partners Bank of Scotland after the government banned the scheme in July following a public inquiry. With the current state of the Bank of Scotland's real-estate investments (dreadful), it was thought the joint venture would evaporate and the City Corporation, which owns the land, would have to find a new developer.
Happily not: all three swallowed hard and then visited the offices of English Heritage, just up the road from the site in the old Prudential HQ in Holborn. These are the guys who opposed the scheme and the guys who could force the developer to preserve the Victorian buildings in aspic if they played hardball.
English Heritage wanted an architect who could preserve the best bits. The developers wanted someone who could draw up a scheme that would make a profit. They agreed on McAslan (practice motto: “we aim for an architecture which is rational and poetic”), who has done this sort of thing before.
But those who wander past the crumbling General Market building on Farringdon Road will have to wait a while before anything happens. McAslan says it will take until next spring at least until feasibility studies are carried out. Only then can he put HB pencil to cartridge paper. “It could be a Leadenhall in the west of the City,” he agrees cautiously, “but we need to look at the feasibility first.”
Gonzo artist' draws up devil of a plan
Ralph Steadman has dreamed up a “Devil of the South” to liven up the Thames Gateway.
The Maidstone-based cartoonist feels that a 300ft-high sculpture of a glum-looking geezer built out of office blocks should bestride some likely spot on the eastern rim of the capital. Relax — the sketch is simply the prize The Architects' Journal (AJ) is offering in a whimsical competition to design something a touch more practical. But the 72-year-old “Gonzo artist” will have really spooked the Conservative-controlled planning committee in his home town.
He tells AJ he has applied to build a “Cathedragogue” in his back garden: a “spiritual shopping centre” combining the world's religions: “My plan comes in the wake of the recently completed Fremlin Walk shopping mall in the very heart of Maidstone. This is a bigger dream, I know, a gargantuan task! But if it should happen anywhere, why shouldn't it happen in Maidstone?” Why not Ralph, why not?
LandSecs gets that shrinking feeling
Land Securities this week finally gave up on the idea of breaking its property business
in half after spending £16 million exploring
the prospect.
Refinancing £3.6 billion of debt was going to cost too much. Now the company is shrinking rather than splitting.
The value of LandSecs property has slumped by £1.7 billion to £12 billion in the past
six months.
Chief executive Francis Salway may be feeling a little bruised by the experience of abandoning an idea only he and his board seemed to think was a good idea when it was announced in November 2007.
But the staff are pleased. Salway could please them more by abandoning the year-long attempt to sell LandSecs' property-outsourcing business Trillium.
This business was described in the summer of 2007 by then chairman and now City Minister Paul Myners as “one of the key drivers of future value” — something never more needed than now.
Peter Bill is editor of Estates Gazette
www.estatesgazettegroup.com
