St Martins Property Group
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St Martins Property Group is a leading property development, investment and asset management company based in the United Kingdom with their headquarters in London Bridge City, London. Their flagship projects are the London Bridge City, an office area and Cheapside, a residential new-build. St Martins Property Group has operations in the United Kingdom, Continental Europe and Australia.
[edit] History
The Company was incorporated in February 1924 as The St Martins-Le-Grand Property Company Limited to carry on the business of property investment.
The Company started to expand after the war years and in 1947 it merged with the Cheapside Land Development Company Limited which owned a number of London office properties. The Company then acquired Porkellis Property & General Investment Trust Limited in 1954, further expanding the portfolio of office investments.
Rapid growth was to follow after 1956, with the acquisition of a number of property companies including London & Northern Properties Limited, introducing significant portfolios of investment properties and development sites. It was during this period that the name of the Company was changed to St Martins Property Corporation Limited.
In addition to growth by acquisition, the company embarked on an extensive programme of property development and during the 1960's and 70's many schemes were completed including King's Mall Shopping Centre at Hammersmith.
During the 1980's the Company expanded its portfolio with the completion of major office, retail and warehousing schemes including London Bridge City, Windmill Hill Business Park in Swindon, the Drummond Centre in Croydon, Monument Mall Newcastle, Cathedral Lanes Coventry, Fieldhead Business Centre Bradford and Elliots Field Retail Park at Rugby. In Europe alone, St Martins owns more than nine hundred thousand square metres of commercial property.
The Company is currently undergoing a dynamic expansion programme, actively pursuing good quality investments and development opportunities in maturing and emerging markets on a global basis.
In March 2007 St Martins completed the purchase of Europe's largest shopping cenre, Cevahir, in Istanbul. Through a number of new initiatives and active management, the target is to turn Cevahir into one of the most successful centres in the world.
St Martins also recently acquired the 101-unit Plejada shopping centre in Sosnowiec, Poland, which will be extended by an additional phase of approximately 25% and the company is in advanced states of negotiation on several other large acquisitions.
St Martins' diverse assets include the prestigious London Bridge City development on the banks of the River Thames, which contains over 93,000 sq m of office, retail, leisure and residential accommodation. The company owns a significant amount of property in the City of London and is currently redeveloping a 19,000 sq m landmark office building at 150 Cheapside, adjacent to St Paul's Cathedral.
Retail holdings in the UK include the recently completed 74,000 sq m Centrale, a regional shopping centre in Croydon on the outskirts of London. Other UK retail centres owned by St Martins include Kings Mall in Hammersmith, West London, Monument Mall, Newcastle upon Tyne and Three Spires in the City of Lichfield.
