When a fox says ‘help’ in London, there’s often an ambulance on its way

PADDOCK WOOD, England (AP) — The injured fox is cornered in a cage, teeth bared and snarling at the woman trying to help it.

Nicki Townsend is unfazed. Wearing only rubber gloves and an outfit suitable for a yoga class, she approaches with soothing words. “All right, baby," she coos as she deftly drapes a towel over his head, grabs him by the scruff of his neck, scoops up his wounded legs and moves him to a clean cage.

It’s not the way her day typically begins, but there’s nothing routine about rescuing foxes.

“You can never predict what you’re going to arrive at,” Townsend said.

While not as visible as phone boxes or double-decker buses, the red fox is a fixture in London, a city not known for its wildlife. But living on the streets, alleys and back gardens of a dense urban environment can be rough and when foxes need help, they have their own ambulance service — and Townsend may be on her way.

The foxes didn't invade London so much as adapt and expand their range inward as the city spread to their habitat in the 1930s and suburbs grew.

But people and the bushy-tailed member of the canine family have not always lived in harmony, and the species has admirers and adversaries.

For everyone enchanted seeing a fox trotting nonchalantly down their street at dusk or basking in a sunny backyard, there are plenty who see them as pests. They poop where they like, tear into garbage and the vixens in heat let out terrifying shrieks in the dead of winter when attracting a mate.

“It’s like Marmite with foxes,” Townsend said, referring to the food spread that is an acquired and divisive taste. “You either love them or hate them.”

The divide between the two camps led Trevor Williams to found what became The Fox Project nearly 35 years ago.

Once a bass player in the rock group Audience that opened for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Williams had been active in the campaign to stop fox hunting when he redirected his protection efforts to the city, where foxes were once routinely killed.

“Because of the myths that have occurred over the years, there’s still a lot of suspicion about what foxes might be,” Williams said. “You know, they’re going to bite the baby, they’re going to eat the cat, they’re going to run away with your husband.”

The project has since grown from providing information on deterring foxes to rescuing 1,400 a year, including 400 cubs, though only about half survive to be released.

There are estimated to be 15,000 foxes in London. The project covers a swath of south London and its leafy suburbs while other organizations not devoted solely to foxes handle other parts of the city.

While the omnivores survive on small animals, bugs and berries in the wild, they favor easily scavenged leftovers in the city and handouts that make them more dependent on humans.

Their main urban menaces are cars, getting snagged in soccer nets or getting stuck in tight spaces. In their effort to get free, they often get nasty abrasions that can become infected. Many also suffer from mange, a parasitic infestation that leads to all kinds of problems.

Townsend pilots her VW Caddy on city streets, highways and narrow lanes that roll through lush hills, responding to calls about injured or ill foxes or cubs that have lost their mothers.

She's seen a bit of everything since her first humbling call 2 1/2 years ago when the supposedly injured fox bolted.

“In my inexperience, I chased after him, which is comical because you’re never going to outrun a fox,” she said. “I just remember he ran very fast and I looked silly running after him.”

Despite many challenging situations — she once managed to rescue a fox that lost its footing atop a fence and ended upside down at eye level with its paw lodged between boards — she's only been bitten once.

Her van carries the distinctly musky scent of foxes. The odor becomes unpleasant when an anxious passenger in a litter of cubs relieves itself enroute to being delivered to a foster care pen where they will stay until being released in the wild.

“Feel free to open the window,” said Townsend, who is accustomed to the stench. “This is a stinky job."

On a recent day, she was dispatched to meet a heartbroken couple who found a cub with a puncture wound collapsed on their back lawn.

“We thought he was asleep at first, so we went to go and have a close look because we love them," Charlotte English said. “Then he just didn’t move, so we knew something was wrong.”

That cub had to be put to sleep, as did the adult Townsend transferred at the start of her shift.

Cubs that recover are socialized in packs of five until they mature and are then released in a rural location while the adults are freed in the neighborhoods where they were found.

Given a second chance, it's not clear how well the foxes fare, because they are rarely tracked. A 2016 study in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science found that rehabilitated foxes were more likely to behave as if they had been displaced when returned to their original territory. They were tracked wandering farther away, potentially exposing them to more traffic and greater stress.

“It is a gap in the knowledge and there’s an assumption that when you release them, they thrive and I think that that assumption needs to be challenged more,” said Bryony Tolhurst, a University of Brighton honorary research fellow and lead author of the study.

For Townsend, fox deaths are offset by the joy of seeing little ones venture into the unknown or an adult darting into a neighborhood it instantly recognizes.

“Sometimes they look back and people like to romanticize that they’re saying ‘thank you,'" she said. "They’re just making sure we’re not chasing after them.”

Volunteers examine a fox cub at the hospital run by The Fox Project after being rescued near Tonbridge, England, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Trevor Williams examines a fox that has been taken into hospital by The Fox Project near Tonbridge, England, Thursday, May 22, 2025.(AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Nicki Townsend of The Fox Project looks after a fox cub that was found barely alive in a garden behind a block of flats in London, England, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A volunteer injects medicine with a syringe into the snout of a fox after being rescued at the hospital run by The Fox Project near Tonbridge, England, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

A fox has a first look around in it's enclosure after being treated at the rescue hospital of The Fox Project near Tonbridge, England, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 22, 2025--

Walker & Dunlop, Inc. announced today that it has arranged a $778.6 million construction loan to facilitate the office-to-residential conversion of 111 Wall Street, located along the East River waterfront in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District. The closing of this financing marks the largest single-building office-to-residential conversion loan in New York City history, and the country.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251222794121/en/

The Walker & Dunlop Capital Markets Institutional Advisory Practice arranged the loan on behalf of InterVest capital partners, a global alternative investment manager. Dustin Stolly, Aaron Appel, Adam Schwartz, Keith Kurland, Jonathan Schwartz, Sean Reimer, and Sean Bastian, arranged the financing from Apollo Global Management, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., and TYKO Capital. Walker & Dunlop also advised on the extension of an existing $88.4 million C-PACE loan from Petros that remained in the capitalization, bringing the total financing package to $867 million.

Originally built in 1968, 111 Wall Street is currently a 24-story, fully vacant office tower being converted into a 30-story luxury residential rental community. The project includes a five-story overbuild, a fully redesigned lobby, and will feature approximately 1,568 rental units across more than 899,000 rentable square feet, including open layouts, perpetually protected water views, condo-level finishes, and over 100,000 square feet of luxury amenities. The redevelopment will also include 7,000 rentable square feet of ground floor retail. Approximately 25% of the units will be designated as affordable housing for residents earning an average of 80% of Area Median Income (AMI), qualifying the project for New York City’s Affordable Housing Conversion Program.

“With office vacancies still elevated post-pandemic, we are seeing developers and global capital providers increasingly turning to residential conversions as a practical path forward,” said Stolly, senior managing director at Walker & Dunlop. “Manhattan’s apartment demand remains exceptionally strong, and projects like 111 Wall Street address both the growing need for housing and the repositioning of outdated, underutilized office assets. This project underscores continued investor confidence in large-scale adaptive reuse in core urban markets. We are pleased to work with InterVest, its development partners, and trusted lenders on this transformative conversion.”

The amenity program is designed to rival luxury condominium offerings and position 111 Wall Street as a premier downtown Manhattan rental property. Highlights include a wellness and recreation suite with a spa, golf simulator, bowling alley, and social lounges; a full-service, state-of-the-art fitness center, café, and co-working spaces; and a signature rooftop with climate-controlled basketball and padel courts and New York City’s only rooftop NBA regulation court, along with a pool, jogging track, outdoor fitness area, and panoramic views of the waterfront and Manhattan and Brooklyn skylines. Additional amenities include a 24/7 lobby, concierge services, tenant storage, and a curated mix of lifestyle spaces.

"111 Wall Street exemplifies InterVest's commitment to identifying and executing complex, value-add opportunities in dynamic urban markets," said Michael Gontar, CEO at InterVest capital partners. "This project captures the evolving demand for high-quality residential living in Lower Manhattan. The building's scale, prime waterfront location, and exceptional amenity offering positions it to attract strong and sustained tenant interest. Adaptive reuse projects like this are a hallmark of one of our investment strategies, transforming underutilized assets into best-in-class residential communities that serve growing populations, revitalize neighborhoods, and address the housing shortage in New York City. We're grateful to Walker & Dunlop, our lending partners, and the entire development team for their collaboration in bringing this transformative vision to life."

The development team includes MetroLoft Development as developer, Collaborative Construction Management as construction manager, Gensler as architect of record, and Corcoran New Development as marketing and leasing agent.

“We’re excited to be working with InterVest and Walker & Dunlop on this iconic property, which will bring much-needed new housing to the city and one of its most vibrant neighborhoods," said Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of Metro Loft.

111 Wall Street’s premier waterfront location along South Street and the East River waterfront distinguishes it from most other residential offerings in the Financial District, offering sweeping views of the East River, Brooklyn skyline, the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges, as well as city views. Its positioning within the neighborhood also provides for ease of access to various transportation options, including immediate access to premier lifestyle amenities including Brookfield Place, the South Street Seaport, Westfield World Trade Center Mall, and the Tin Building by Jean-Georges.

In 2024, Walker & Dunlop’s Capital Markets team sourced over $16 billion from non-Agency capital providers. This vast experience has made them a top advisor on all asset classes for many of the industry’s top developers, owners, and operators. To learn more about Walker & Dunlop’s broad financing options, visit our website.

About Walker & Dunlop

Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD) is one of the largest commercial real estate finance and advisory services firms in the United States and internationally. Our ideas and capital create communities where people live, work, shop, and play. Our innovative people, breadth of our brand, and our technological capabilities make us one of the most insightful and client-focused firms in the commercial real estate industry.

About InterVest capital partners

InterVest capital partners (“InterVest”) is a New York-based global alternative investment manager specializing in real estate, specialty finance, and asset-based lending. Since its inception, InterVest has invested $25 billion in alternative strategies and is 100% employee-owned and controlled, with teams in New York, London, and Luxembourg investing across North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. To date, the company has invested over $10.7 billion in US real estate mandates.

About Metro Loft

MetroLoft Developers, LLC is a vertically integrated real estate development and management company founded in 1995 by Nathan Berman, who continues to serve as the managing principal. As a pioneer in the residential development of Lower Manhattan, MetroLoft has spent the past three decades redeveloping some of the most iconic buildings in downtown New York City, including landmarks such as 443 Greenwich St., 20 Exchange Place and 63 Wall St. Metro Loft is responsible for the acquisition, development and management of some of the most notable condominium and rental buildings in Lower Manhattan. Our reputation as a leading commercial-to-residential development firm is built upon our approach and vision to preserve the details that make each property unique and to elevate them through modern design and amenities.

111 Wall Rendering. Photo Credit: Gensler