Developer buys a slice of Beverly Hills 90210

A PRIME eight-acre site in Beverly Hills 90210 is the latest purchase by locally based property developer CPC Group. It was one of two major deals secured by the group last week. The other was for London's Chelsea Barracks.

The company has already achieved several billion pounds in sales in London in less than four years in business.

The Los Angeles deal, which is jointly financed by Kaupthing Bank, is for 9900 Wilshire - one of the largest development opportunities at the world famous address.

Chelsea Barracks has been bought in partnership with the Qatar Government-backed investment company, Qatari Diar.

CPC Group will act as primary developer in both cases with the other two entities as financial backers.

Chief finance director Steven Smith said: 'These two projects are comparable in that they are the best pieces of real estate that exist in both cities. Arguably they are the biggest property developments in the world.'

The Beverly Hills site will accommodate 252 luxury homes.

Chief operating officer Richard Williams said the company was delighted to be making its first foray into the United States market.

'We look forward to working closely with architect Richard Meier to create a landmark building of international repute.'

Full details of the purchase of Chelsea Barracks will not be disclosed until the completion date in January. But Mr Smith said yesterday it would be primarily high-end flats with some town houses and single dwellings.

The company is responsible for some of the most high profile residential developments in the world.

It caters for the extremely wealthy in creating the most luxurious homes going.

It acts as a developer, employing consultants, contractors, architects and interior designers, and runs the projects from Guernsey.

London entrepreneur Christian Candy, 32, set it up three-and-a-half years ago.

Mr Smith has lived in Guernsey for the last 10 years and was in Jersey for the three before that. Mr Williams has lived locally for two years. Their families also live here.

The Beverly Hills site, offering 830,000sq. ft of residential and 20,000sq. ft of retail, is at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards.

It adjoins the Beverly Hills Hilton and overlooks the prestigious Los Angeles Country Club. The plans, which have yet to be approved, are for two 12-storey signature buildings, luxury town houses and two four-storey contemporary loft buildings, which will take up only a third of the land.

The grounds will include private waterscapes and sculpture gardens as well as a public garden.

It will be designed to consume 25% less energy, use 50% less water and create fewer greenhouse emissions than comparable residential buildings.

Project Blue, the partnership between CPC Group and Qatari Diar, announced last week that it had exchanged contracts for the sale of the Chelsea Barracks site with Defence Estates.

Completion is due in January following relocation of military units from the site to Woolwich.

The barracks was originally built to house two battalions of troops, but is now home to the public duties and state ceremonial personnel.

The Westminster site forms a triangle between Chelsea Bridge Road, Pimlico Road and Ebury Bridge Road, lying within the City of Westminster.