Landsec committed to Mayfield and MediaCity despite development row back

The company announced yesterday its intention to double down on retail investment and commit no fresh capital to new development projects in the near term, setting hares running in the North West where the investor has a significant presence.

Place North West understands that Landsec’s announcement will not impact on existing schemes such as Mayfield and MediaCity and that the move away from development in the near term relates to new schemes only.

However, Landsec intends to reduce its committed development pipeline to £0.2bn by mid-2026, it said.

At Mayfield, Bowmer + Kirkland is on site delivering the first office building, a 243,000 sq ft speculative scheme. Landsec also has planning permission for almost 900 apartments in the first residential phase.

At MediaCity, which is already home to 1.4m sq ft of offices and more than 1,100 homes, consent is in place for 3,200 more residences and an additional 800,000 sq ft of commercial space in phase two of the masterplan.

Since Landsec took full control of MediaCity last year, there has been no update on when development of the next phase of the masterplan would begin.

Speaking to Place at MIPIM, chief executive Mark Allan said the consented plans could be subject to change.

“I’m not entirely sure what that final mix will be,” he said in March. “I do feel there’s an opportunity to blend the media the creative sectors with more leisure and attractions as well as living within that.”

Since March, Landsec has completed or progressed to legals £644m of sales, including £295m of offices, the company said in an announcement to the market yesterday.

Listed Landsec said that it would be prioritising capital allocation to adding more best-in-class retail assets to its portfolio, which already contains Liverpool ONE and Bluewater, among others.

The firm described shopping centres as its “highest conviction call”.