Royal Albert Dock
Financing one of London’s largest PBSA schemes
Watch: Financing Royal Albert Dock
Firma Partners has provided a first stage whole loan of £113.7m to DPK Group to fund the conversion of Royal Albert Dock, c. 450,000 sq ft of vacant East London office space, into a landmark placemaking PBSA scheme with a GDV of c. £300m.
Press play to hear from David Maxwell and the Firma team on what makes this deal special.
“What we’re good at, at Firma, is large and complex developments. This is big. We’re delivering 1,100 beds on the water.”
– Victor Librae, Chief Executive, Firma Partners
The opportunity: Reimagining the Royal Docks
The facility finances the refurbishment of 20 riverfront buildings, delivering 1,085 student beds alongside 55,000 sq ft of retail and amenity space in the heart of the Royal Docks, an area with over £5bn of committed investment over the next 20 years.
David Maxwell, Founder & CEO of DPK Group, bought the site four years ago without a fixed plan for its future:
“I first bought this place four years ago, and we didn’t have a plan for what to do with it. So what is really exciting about this is to see something that was derelict and didn’t have a purpose come to life.”
Why it works: A rare repositioning opportunity
- BREEAM Excellent certification
- Full planning consent secured in 2023
- Conversion requiring predominantly internal fit-out works
- A short walk from the University of East London’s 40,000-strong student population
- On track for completion in Q3 2027, to be operated by Homes for Students
“It’s very rare to come across a half a million square foot of office that’s recently been built to an extremely high standard that’s absolutely prime for repurposing. It’s an incredible building built in 2019 with amazing transport links and views across London.”
A partnership built on flexibility: DPK Group & Firma Partners
“At Firma, we’re not governed by the same type of constraints as banks are. We have the ability to look at things a bit more flexibly. We don’t have certain treasury constraints that other lenders have.”
DPK Group on working with the Firma team:
“It’s been a complete pleasure working with Firma from the start. The single most important thing about working with Firma is the enthusiasm of the team for the project, a commonly held vision. They saw it from the first meeting. These things are complicated, but they’ve worked through all of the problems with us and got to a solution that means these beds get delivered.”
Royal Albert Dock and Firma's wider mission
In a London market where student accommodation remains chronically undersupplied, this transaction reflects exactly the kind of complex, value-adding repositioning of high-quality, underutilised real estate that Firma Partners was established to finance.
“London is basically the capital city of the Western Hemisphere. This is one of the biggest regeneration opportunities in the Western Hemisphere, and we’re right at the middle of it with student residential.”