Derelict structures on both banks should get a facelift and be put to adaptive reuse once the riverside regeneration programme takes off. A Telegraph picture

Super-luxury residential quarters in Mayfair and Belgravia in London, high-end commercial projects in West End, the iconic Paradise Project in Liverpool, a retail-leisure-condo combo by the Calcutta waterfront…

The $15.6-billion UK-based international property group Grosvenor is keen to have a share of the city’s riverside regeneration pie.

“There’s great potential in Calcutta and it’s just a matter of time before we turn our gaze towards this region,” Guy Butler, senior development manager of the global real estate major, told Metro on Thursday.

Butler is in town as part of the five-member UK heritage and regeneration mission headed by George Nicholson, chairman, London Rivers Association, seeking to accelerate cooperation between the UK and Bengal in urban regeneration and riverfront development.

“Even though I’m here on a fact-finding mission, we are genuinely interested in creating landmark developments in downtown Calcutta, especially by the river. A retail-leisure lair would be the perfect kick-off, but we can also come in with luxury condos. Given a 15-year programme, we can revitalise city quarters,” Butler added.

Grosvenor is a 330-year-old company headed by the Duke of Westminster, whose personal wealth tops £6 billion. It has a strategic focus on creating and managing vibrant, mixed-use town and city centres.

The British experts, participating in a workshop on Delivering Urban Regeneration Projects, stressed on the need for a special purpose vehicle to augment riverside rejuvenation in Calcutta. Such an SPV should have an “overarching vision” to lift projects off the ground, felt Nicholson.

“It took us more than 20 years to get started on the Thames, but by setting up the London Docklands Development Corporation, we have created such adaptive reuse wonders like the Tate Modern. Similarly, the splendid Strand warehouses could be turned into retail-entertainment-arts-culture magnets,” the LRA chairman observed.

Grosvenor is ready to do such restoration work in Calcutta if it earns them “the right to develop commercial properties adding up to a critical mass”, Butler promised.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya pledged the civic body’s responsibility to “preserve the heritage character of Dalhousie Square and the riverfront” and welcomed critical inputs from the British experts.

British deputy high commissioner to eastern India Simon Wilson said: “There’s no reason why Calcutta’s riverfront shouldn’t get Unesco listing.” The British team will meet government officials, private entrepreneurs and visit key heritage sites.