Offices reconsented as a hotel and sold at £23m after twenty-four months.
Transaction facts
| Service | Development |
| Location | Covent Garden, WC2 |
| Change of use | Offices to hotel |
| Sale | £23m after twenty-four months |
The brief
A modernised Victorian office building on Kingsway, three minutes from Covent Garden market and two from Holborn. Well located, well connected, and worth more as something other than what it was.
What we did
We took the view that the building’s best use was hospitality, not offices, and spent £650,000 establishing it — the largest planning spend of any scheme here, and the one with the clearest return. Kingsway carries the footfall and the transport links a hotel needs, and the floor plates suited the layout.
The result
Sold at £23m twenty-four months after purchase, without a brick being laid. The whole of the value came from changing what the building was allowed to be. This is the part of development most people underestimate: the planning argument is the product.