Blackfriars Road skyscraper site poised to sell for £235 million

The site is north of Christ Church Southwark on Blackfriars Road and stretches up to Stamford Street and west to Paris Garden.

The land has changed hands several times over the years, passing from Land Securities to Israeli-backed Circleplane before its acquisition in 2014 by Malaysian-backed, Jersey-registered company Black Pearl for £114 million.

Southwark councillors approved Black Pearl's plans for 288 homes, a 548-room hotel, a music venue, shops and and offices – in buildings up to 53 storeys high – in summer 2017, but the site has remained vacant.

New filings at the stock exchange in Kuala Lumpur this week reveal that Black Pearl's Malaysian owners are about to sell the company to a new consortium made up of Hero Inc. Ltd, Staycity Ltd and BSW Land and Property Ltd.

The parties have agreed non-binding heads of terms for the sale, which values the company – whose main asset is the Blackfriars Road land – at £235 million.

Hero Inc Ltd is controlled by Indian businessman Sunil Kant Munjal.

Dublin-based Staycity has aparthotels at Heathrow, Deptford, Greenwich and Covent Garden.

BSW Land and Property – which is more than 50 per cent owned by Rabeea Shamsi – is involved in a major hotel development at Paddington Basin.