GE Real Estate has bought a 14,400 sq ft central London office block as the company’s European arm expands its retail portfolio in the Czech Republic.
The company acquired the building at 4 Tenterton Street, W1, from Scotts – the McCann family backed investment vehicle – for £17.6m.
The sale terms included the surrender of EMI’s lease giving GE immediate vacant possession of the building, which has office space spread over six floors, so GE can make an immediate start on upgrading parts of the building.
Mike Rowan, managing director of GE Real Estate UK, said: “We are very pleased to have acquired this asset with vacant possession so that we can immediately progress our refurbishment plans for the building.
“The property is ideally located to benefit from growing occupational demand for well located West End offices.
“The ability to complete the purchase within 10 workings days of agreeing terms is testament to our efficient due diligence process, a major factor in the vendor selecting GE Real Estate as the purchaser of this asset.”
Michael Elliot acted on behalf of GE Crossland Otter Hunt acted on behalf of the vendor.
Meanwhile, the company’s European arm, GE Real Estate Central & Eastern Europe, has entered in to a forward funding agreement with Euro Mall Holdings, a subsidiary of TK Development, for around €16.4m (£11.09m).
Euro Mall Holdings is to start work on the 104,000 sq ft Ostrava Retail Park in the Czech Republic at the beginning of 2007.
Completion of the 12-unit retail park, located adjacent to the 68-store Futurum Shopping Centre already owned by a GE partnership, is expected by the end of next year.
This is the second transaction that GE Real Estate has undertaken with TK Development in the Czech Republic following the acquisition in 2003 of four Czech shopping centres from the developer.
Karim Habra, managing director of GE Real Estate Central & Eastern Europe, said: “The development of this new retail park will greatly enhance the retail offer in Ostrava and complement and strengthen the market position of the adjacent Futurum Shopping Centre.
“Furthermore, following the recent acquisition of a portfolio of 16 hypermarkets from Groupe Casino, this transaction strengthens GE’s position as the leading investor in retail assets across the region.”
References: EGi News 27/11/06
