Receivers have been appointed to a highly contested £75m Oxford Street block owned in a joint venture by David Pearl’s Structadene and a private Middle Eastern investor.

The appointment of receivers to 431/451 Oxford Street comes after Property Week revealed last month that Pearl and Continental Resources Development Corporationwere locked in a legal battle over how the asset, thought to be worth around £75m, should be sold after the joint venture broke down.

Allsop’s Jon Gershinson and Louisa Brooks have now been appointed as fixed charge receivers of the asset, which constitutes the island site opposite Selfridges and adjacent to recently completed Park House development.

Today David Pearl said: “The current investment climate in Oxford Street and the West End generally is extremely strong and there are many buyers keen to acquire such a landmark asset with enormous potential for redevelopment. Given this fact and the current impasse with CRDC, appointing a receiver to sell the largest and single most valuable asset in this JV enables us to fulfil our commitment to the lender to repay a substantial part of the remaining debt in the JV and realise an impressive return on the investment.”

Retail investors have been circling the property since late last year when talk of a fallout between the joint venture parties, and a possible sale, started.

The 50:50 joint venture between Cosmichome, a subsidiary of Structadene, and CRDC was terminated in January.

The breakdown in the relationship is said to have been caused by disagreements over how best to deal with the decision by the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation last year to call in its loans on the assets owned by the joint venture.

Last month CRDC filed a claim in the Birmingham high court to establish how the joint assets, understood to be worth more than £150m, should be sold.

The claim indicated the pair had agreed when the joint venture was formed in 2008 that, should the partnership be terminated, the assets “shall be sold at public auction”. However, it states Pearl’s company wants a private sale.

The appointment of receivers on the Oxford Street block does not affect the other properties in Structadene’s portfolio or the business as a whole.

Allsops declined to comment.