UK: The owners of four London properties managed by Think Apartments have been placed in administration.
The properties, at Earls Court, Tower Bridge, Bermondsey Street and London Bridge, are owned by a group of property companies which are the subject of the administration. The companies are Apart Hotels (Bermondsey) Limited, Tower Bridge Road Development Limited, Apart Hotels Tower Bridge Limited and Warwick Road Development Limited.
Think Apartments has been instructed by the joint administrators to prepare to hand back the buildings in a state of vacant possession by 12 noon on Saturday 30th August. Consequently the company is unable to accommodate any reservations which are due to depart after the 29th August.
In a statement, Think Apartments said: “Following a period of significant growth under their management, the properties managed by Think experienced ownership problems in the autumn of 2013, when loans secured from Irish lenders over a decade ago to develop London aparthotels were called in by NAMA (the Irish National Asset management Agency) resulting in the administration of some of the property owning companies that Think operate”.
Think’s managing director Jim Souter said: “This is completely separate from the Think Apartments operating company which has continued to manage the apartments in the interim,”. Souter led the management team which took the four properties from a £10.9 million turnover in 2010 to £19.7 million within 12 months and subsequently grew the business year on year to £26.9 million by 2014.
Other apartments unaffected by the administration continue to be operated and marketed by Think Apartments. These include 160 apartments at the Maltings site and 14 apartments at Vauxhall. The company says it continues to seek additional management agreements and development opportunities.
A further statement about Think’s future plans is expected within the next 14 days.
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