Jockey in race to revive Johnson’s dream of Venice-upon-Thames
A champion horse rider and developer is poised to acquire London’s Albert Dock,
Mandarin Street is quite literally a road to nowhere. Slicing between grey office blocks on the edge of the Royal Albert Dock in east London, it is the main thoroughfare of a development that Boris Johnson claimed would signal the dawn of a “golden era” of Sino-British relations.
But these days the development is now more akin to a zombie film than London’s “third financial district” or east London’s answer to Venice, as was once envisioned. Mandarin Street ends abruptly at a barron plot of patchy grass smattered with rubbish and weeds.
As London mayor, Johnson originally struck a deal with Chinese company Advanced Business Parks (ABP) in 2013 to develop a 35-acre plot of land opposite London City airport, intended to create a hub to rival that of the City and Canary Wharf.
However, the fate of the development is emblematic of diplomatic relations between Britain and China over the last decade: great hopes, all dashed.
Last summer, Sadiq Khan, Johnson’s successor at City Hall, finally booted Xu Weiping, the “deep thinking” tycoon behind ABP, from the site. PwC, the “big four” accounting firm, was appointed as liquidator to sell off the office space on which Xu had spent around £270m.
Now, the unloved sight could be poised for revival. David Maxwell, a developer and amateur jockey, has emerged as a frontrunner to acquire the first phase of Royal Albert Dock. His property firm, DPK, has exchanged contracts with PwC to buy the site in a deal believed to be worth “tens of millions of pounds” – a far cry from the sum sunk in by the Chinese.
Maxwell, a 44-year-old who continues to win professional races riding his own horses, is believed to be in discussions with deep-pocketed funders including hedge fund Baupost over his plans to develop the entire site – not just the part already built by ABP.
Johnson’s dream of London’s third financial district will be tossed aside. Maxwell is thought to be considering building film studios, an expansion of the nearby University of East London, data centres and labs to attract the life science sector.
Preliminary talks are said to have already begun with officials from the Greater London Authority and property consultancy Montagu Evans, which was hired to find a new developer for the 4.3m sq ft of land still lying fallow on the site. “It makes sense to develop the whole dock area, and do it in one go,” says one person with knowledge of Maxwell’s discussions.
This would likely require Maxwell to tap more than just Baupost for cash. The gross development value is estimated to be £2.9bn.
Others may already be in the mix to help. Ivan Ko, the Hong Kong property tycoon, is understood to have contacted Maxwell – although City sources said it was not clear whether Ko, the businessman behind the redevelopment of Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong, was looking to co-invest or simply for his own office space.
Some 4.7m sq ft of office, commercial and residential space had originally been planned for the plot under ABP. “For centuries the waterways of east London were the throbbing arteries of UK trade and commerce,” Johnson said at the time. “This deal symbolises the revival of that great era.”
Roughly 400,000 sq ft was completed – but it now stands frozen in time. A ghost town; a relic of globalisation in a deglobalising world economy.
Xu’s backers are understood to have been left fuming by the turn of events. City sources said the group of Chinese lenders that funded the development had failed to take security over the land and buildings, forcing them into eye-watering write-offs of their loans.
Meanwhile, Xu has been left a pariah in his homeland after a Beijing court issued him with a travel ban and tough spending restrictions following allegations of unpaid debts.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, he lamented: “I used to be a billionaire but not any more.”
He added: “The virus [Covid] is only one of the reasons. Brexit has caused a lot of my UK assets to depreciate.”
Because Maxwell will acquire the site for a comparatively modest sum, the part-time jockey will be able to offer cheaper rents and short-term leases to up and coming businesses – a move that it is thought he hopes will help quickly generate a critical mass and banish the ghost town legacy.
Maxwell this weekend declined to comment on his plans for Royal Albert Dock.
Success is far from guaranteed – not least because this would be his biggest development by far.
His previous projects include mixed-use revamps on Bromley High Street and the Wolfe Towers in Brent, north-west London.
Another hurdle could be the London mayor and his ambitions. Maxwell would be expected to develop the site in partnership with City Hall and it is an open question whether Khan’s vision for the area aligns with Maxwell’s. Khan could place demands on the site that fit into his plan for London as he prepares to stand for a third term in office next year.
As London City airport passengers look on quizzically at the development eyesore across the dock, the fate of Royal Albert Dock remains in the balance. Johnson’s dream of an Asian-backed financial centre may well be over but green shoots are emerging in its place.
As Khan grapples with the cost of living crisis and focuses on reducing pollution in the capital, it is still an outside bet whether Maxwell’s masterplan to turn one of London’s least loved areas into a thriving metropolis will become a reality any time soon. Smart money does not always
back the favourite.