Dozens of freelance workers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have found a new office in an old police station in Dartford, a town lying on the outer edge of the Greater London area. The regeneration project was carried out by Rehoboth Property International (RPI), a British property developer with a £30m portfolio and ambitions to launch a £100m fund to pursue further opportunities. Its CEO, Sanmi Adegoke, tells fDi how the company is turning regeneration into a high-impact business. 

Q: How do you approach regeneration projects like the old police station in Dartford? 

A: I remember coming to Dartford two years ago and seeing a big opportunity for regeneration. The council had a lot of plans to develop residential real estate, but what about the businesses?

That’s when we started looking into the development of commercial property space, in particular looking at ways to breathe new life into old buildings.

We believe in creating a legacy from anything that we touch as a business. This used to be an old police station; its old cells used to be places where people saw their destiny locked up. We have turned it into an ecosystem of businesses.  

Q: What is RPI today? 

A: We currently have assets in excess of £30m and are in the process of finalising the acquisition of another £15m property in Bromley.

We work a lot with faith communities where we find the space they need and ways for them to regenerate it. For example, we have turned old bingo buildings into churches or other faith community assets. We did the same with old police stations, cinemas and warehouses.

We have seen several very interesting opportunities, especially in Greater London, where buildings are just empty and wasting away. There’s a lot of stuff we can do with those buildings. We can create business ecosystems out of them, community spaces, even residential spaces in the form of co-living properties. There is a lot of unused space in the UK. 

Q: What is your financing model? 

A: We started educating people around the opportunity of building generational wealth through real estate and a lot of them are now co-investing with us. But we also work with institutional investors and individual investors as they see the impact and the return of our investment.

We are now in the process of raising £100m in a new social impact fund in partnership with venture capital firm Fladgate. 

Q: Will you be focusing exclusively in and around the Greater London area? 

A: We are looking beyond Greater London. We are already working in Dover and looking at commuter areas one or two hours away from London. We can find a lot of undervalued assets in those areas that have been neglected. 

Q: As a property developer, how did you adjust to the current environment characterised by rising interest rates? 

A: It’s challenging because it affects a lot of our properties. What we can do as a business is adjust.

We have always looked for undervalued properties and we want to be in a position where we are able to change the product if we need to.

This article first appeared in the June/July 2023 print edition of fDi Intelligence