Benson Elliot Capital Management is set to buy the Arcadia Centre in Ealing, West London out of administration.
Administrators at Grant Thornton, acting on behalf of NAMA, are understood to have picked the fund manager ahead of initial bids from Sellar Properties and Land Securities.
Earlier this year Ealing council’s Cabinet moved to try to prevent the administrators acting on behalf of NAMA from breaking up the site at Ealing Broadway and selling it piecemeal.
The majority of the site had been owned by Irish developer Glenkerrin, which went into administration last February. The council also owns a small ribbon of land on the site, at the centre of Ealing Broadway, and there are a few other properties owned by different landlords.
Glenkerrin had proposed a £500m comprehensive development of the site including a 24-storey tower comprising 577 apartments as well as shops and offices and redeveloping Ealing Broadway tube station.
However, the company, which is part of Irish brothers Danny and Ray Grehan’s property empire, was placed into administration in February of 2011 after it was unable to pay back €650m of loans to NAMA.
Benson Elliot, the independent private equity real estate with around €850m in equity under management, is looking to expand its investment management activities in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Scandinavia and Central Europe.
