Some things do change: a Singaporean investment company called UOL Group will acquire the 120 Holborn site in Hatton Garden by the end of 2016, according to a report in Jewelry Focus. The 9-storey building was bought for £229.6 million.
The site set for sale incorporates the 100 Hatton Garden building, which houses many jewelry businesses including the London Diamond Bourse (LDB), along with retail units along Hatton Garden.
According to the piece, there is no immediate suggestion about the future of the jewelry businesses housed in the building, but concerns have been raised about the future of London’s famous jewelry quarter with a new cross-rail station at nearby Farringdon station likely to drive up rents and attract commercial property developers to the area.
The LDB has already announced it would hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consult its members on the options available to the bourse when its current lease at 100 Hatton Garden ends in July 2019.
The LDB moved to 100 Hatton Garden at the end of the 1980s. The Hatton Garden street and area in the Holborn district is known as London’s jewelry quarter and center of the UK diamond trade since medieval times, and has an extensive underground infrastructure of vaults, tunnels, offices and workshops. According to The Cheap Engagement Rings Guide, there are approximately 300 jewelry-related business and over 55 shops in Hatton Garden. Among them is the headquarters of giant miner De Beers.
