Cache nolonger a nano on the drain pipe check hint to find the new container (35mm File Pot)
West End 2 - Ham Yard
I thought there were not too many "lunch time caches" in Soho so I planted one :)
Happy caching!
A site in Soho, Central London, that has been largely undeveloped since it was bombed in the Blitz is to be turned into a luxury £90 million hotel, with housing, by Firmdale Hotels, the boutique hotel operator.
I recently came across this site showing bombsites from WW2 and Ham Yard site is covered http://bombsight.org/bombs/14251/
Firmdale Hotels owned by Tim Kemp and his wife Kit, announced that it has acquired the site — Ham Yard, a three quarters of an acre freehold site just off Regent Street, for £30 million.
It plans to spend up to £60 million building a 100-room hotel plus 50,000 sq ft of housing, a third of it affordable accommodation.
The couple, opened Firmdale’s first property in New York SoHo. Mr Kemp, who founded the company 25 years ago, said that the new hotel would become the group’s flagship. He said that it would be “slightly different in style” to the group’s nearby Soho Hotel, adding: “They shouldn’t compete. It will be more luxurious and have more facilities.”
Subject to planning approval, work on the Ham Yard site is expected to start in 2010. It was put up for sale through Allsop and Fleurets, the agents, after liquidation proceedings were started against Windmill Developments, the site’s Gibraltar-registered owner.
The agents were appointed by Bank Leumi, of Israel, which had provided finance to Windmill and now is seeking to recover its money.
In June, Ross Mansoori-Dara, one of the founders of City Lofts, the luxury apartment developer that failed last year, was rumoured to have won the bidding for Ham Yard. He is thought to have pulled out at the eleventh hour over financing issues, opening the door to Firmdale.
The acquisition of the site comes as the Kemps are putting the finishing touches to Firmdale’s first hotel outside London. The Crosby Street Hotel, in the SoHo district of New York, after completion of an $80 million (£49 million) project. The 86-room property has a garden, gym, bar and restaurant.
Mr Kemp said that the owner of the freehold had another site in the Midtown district of New York, where Firmdale hoped to develop a second hotel. Mr Kemp said that he was seeking an equity partner to fund the Midtown project, and perhaps another three hotels in New York.
Firmdale, which has a turnover of about £75 million, had also been in negotiations over a site in Mayfair, Central London, but Mr Kemp said this had fallen through and he had started a new search for a site in the area.
Thank you to Morcheba for originally placing this cache.
This cache has now cached to a 35mm film pot, please be stealthy and since all the problems with the nano gone swimming it how moved and you have to fish for it.