Great Portland Estates in Crossrail row
Great Portland Estates is taking on Transport for London in a £25m row over the development of a Crossrail station. Toby Courtauld, chief executive of the West End property specialist, said yesterday that TfL has compulsorily purchased a London property from the company at a price that is “nowhere near our valuation”.
Great Portland’s 18/19 Hanover Square in London was acquired last month for £35.9m via a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to enable the construction of Crossrail’s Bond Street station. However, Mr Courtauld claims Great Portland’s independent valuation of the property priced it at almost £60m. He said the company is “vigorously pursuing” TfL for the extra cash and pledged to go to the independent Land Tribunal if the dispute is not resolved. “Our shareholders should expect value from their assets and that’s what we are going to get them,” Mr Courtauld added.
Chutspa
Perhaps, but does the compensation they think they are entitled to include the hope value based on expections of the higher rentals that tenants will pay once Crossrail is open? How much will Great Portland gain from the uplift in the value of their property portfolio that will occur due to Crossrail? Isn’t this the return the taxpayer is entitled to on its investment? In the absence of a suitable English word, the Yiddish word chutspa comes to mind.