Unbranded Finance, the non-bank real estate lender, set up in 2020 by Andrew Smith & Oliver Holt, has recently closed a new £5.4 million senior lending transaction. The funding provides a 12-month facility secured against two prime industrial assets in London’s Park Royal.
The properties form part of a wider campus operated by Garden Studios, a technically advanced film production complex designed specifically to support the latest production technologies with versatile stage configurations across multiple buildings and accompanying offices and warehouses.
Garden Studios offers four sound stages and a virtual production stage, support spaces, production offices, workshops and shooting spaces, green rooms, costume, hair & makeup rooms and private meeting rooms across their current footprint of nearly 200,000 sq ft, all provided with the ambition to create the most accessible and sustainable film studio campus located in Park Royal, London’s largest dedicated business park, approximately 7 miles from Central London.
13 Waxlow Road is a 0.74-acre (0.30 hectare) freehold site where Garden Studios are seeking to design and secure a planning consent for an eight storey 86,000 sq ft signature building with high quality accommodation to support film technology, education and film production service companies as part of their growth plans for the campus.
42-50 Steele Road comprises a group of light industrial buildings extending to 10,000 sq ft and operating as “The Hive”, a vibrant hub of co-working space for the creative community with studios for photography, podcast recording, virtual production, audio & video editing, meetings rooms, café & breakout space and the creators lounge, all strategically positioned adjacent to the wider Garden Studios operations.
Unbranded’s co-founder, Oliver Holt, commented:
“This loan reflects our commitment to providing funding secured against high quality property assets against the current challenging backdrop for the commercial property market, and the wider UK and global economies. Since we do not rely on external funding lines, we are able to continue offering fixed rate terms funded using our own shareholder capital alongside giving our borrowers certainty of execution and rapid drawdown of funds.
“We remain committed to growing our loan book moving forwards with a strong appetite for bridging finance across all real estate sectors in the £1m to £20m range, with the ability to lend significantly larger sums for the right opportunities”.
Thomas Hoegh CEO and Founder of Garden Studios added:
“Unbranded has proven to be a reliable partner in otherwise complex market conditions. They have invested the time to understand our business properly and have provided clear and commercial terms to allow us to scale the business”.
