Hondo Enterprises believes that plans for a large office and retail development in central Brixton, including a 20-storey tower, will create property with a value of about £250m.
This figure appears in the company’s job advert for an investment analyst.
The proposed development on Pope’s Road and Brixton Station Road has received planning permission from Lambeth council, but London mayor Sadiq Khan has taken over the application.
While no date has yet been set for a hearing, the mayor’s planning officers are recommending that he should allow Lambeth council to make the final decision, subject to central government approval.
As of today, the owner of the Pope’s Road site listed by the UK government’s Land Registry remains Sports Direct, whose shops still trade there. Hondo Enterprises has refused to explain or discuss this anomaly.
The planning application for the development is in the name of an Amsterdam-based company, AG Hondo Popes Road BV, which is controlled by the New York based finance giant Angelo Gordon.
Hondo also owns the Granville Arcade and Market Row – which it brands together as Brixton Village – in a joint enterprise with Angelo Gordon.
The advertisement for the analyst says it “will be a busy, demanding and occasionally stressful role that requires an assertive and proactive approach.”
it lists Hondo Enterprises’ current property portfolio, including Brixton Village and the planned tower development.
Also listed is a former four-storey car park in London’s West End, which has been converted to a six-storey office space, and a car park and adjoining office building in the Isle of Dogs which is “slated for redevelopment” with an estimated value, when developed, of about approximately £250m.
Brixton Village is described as “a collection of 150 unique retail and food traders sitting on over two acres of Brixton town centre.”
The advert says the Pope’s Road site, when developed for office and retail, will also have an estimated value of £250m.
The job advert lists previous Hondo Enterprises developments which have now been sold, including the 120-bedroom Curtain Hotel, which sold for £92m in 2018; the 21-storey mixed use Relay Building in Aldgate, which sold for £90.75m in 2018 and the NCP car park at Finsbury Square which sold for £20m earlier this year.
In December 2018 Hondo Enterprises and Angelo Gordon “refinanced” their purchase of Brixton’s markets with a five-year loan from the newly established Starz Real Estate.
Hondo and Angelo Gordon bought the markets in April 2018 for £37.25m from London and Associated Properties.
Hondo Enterprises recently filed accounts for the year ending December 2020. It continues to be described as a “micro-entity” – which means the accounts do not need to be audited.
The accounts list the number of employees in 2020 as just one. The company’s LinkedIn page currently lists five employees.
The company’s total assets stood at just over £60,000, compared to £42,000 in 2019. Its income over the year was £443,500, up from £323,605 in 2019. The accounts show that the company had repayments totalling £453,481 falling due within one year.
Hondo Enterprises owed £432,957 to a separate but linked company, Hondo Asset Manager. Like Hondo Enterprises, this is a “micro-entity” company with a single director, American Taylor McWilliams. It lists four employees in its accounts which were filed at the same time as those of Hondo Enterprises.
Another McWilliams company, Housekeeping Events, owed Hondo Enterprises £38,276. McWilliams is one of the four members of the “DJ collective” Housekeeping.
