 Favermead Limited and subsidiaries
In 1992, Khalili started purchasing shopping centres in the UK. These included Cameron Toll in Edinburgh, St Nicholas Arcade in Lancaster, Prince's Mead in Farnborough and the Quintin Centre in Hailsham.
In the early 90s, Khalili transformed two dilapidated buildings in Kensington Palace Gardens and turned them into the most extraordinary palace in Britain. The restoration, which took over 5 years, was second to that of Windsor Castle after the fire in 1992. It is now residence of the Lakshmi Mittal family.
Currently Khalili is working on an innovative energy efficient 300,000 square foot office block at Holborn viaduct named 'The Wave'. Favermead also has property in Mayfair and Exeter.
The Khalili Family Trust has also been very active and successful in investing funds in both new companies starting up and others.
 Conservation and Preservation
Khalili is not only passionate about his art collections. He had long cherished a dream of creating, in the heart of London, a great building that would be a worthy contribution to the heritage of the country in which he had chosen to make his home.
During the 1990s Favermead acquired the leases of two adjacent derelict buildings (former embassies) in Kensington Palace Gardens and obtained unprecedented planning permission from English Heritage to convert them into one.
At a cost of over £90 million the project, simply known as 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens, turned into a restoration project second only in scale, in Britain, to that of Windsor Castle after the disastrous fire of 1992. Khalili's objective was to return the buildings back to their original splendour and by using the original drawings made in 1845 by Sir Charles Barry (architect of the Palace of Westminster) the historic character of the building was preserved.
Under the guidance of English Heritage, and working to the strict guidelines of The Crown Estate, all the original features and decorations were carefully restored. For example, all 40 Adam fireplaces were taken away and restored but one had been so badly damaged it was beyond repair. After a year-long search it was replaced with one of the same period and style, which had been discovered in an architectural salvage yard in London.
The project took five years to complete and employed more than 400 workers and craftsmen per day. By treating the property like a valued object in his collection, Khalili created one of the finest and most aesthetically stunning palaces in Europe. |
