Irish investor Aidan Brooks has sold the Ministry of Justice’s home at Steel House, SW1 , for a Free School, for around £45m – a 4% net initial yield.
Brooks’ Tribeca Holdings has sold 44,000 sq ft 11 Tothill Street, to the Department for Education for the Harris Westminster Sixth Form Free School.
A Department for Education spokesman, said: “As is standard practice with a significant investment of this order, the cost was subject to a value for money assessment using standard Treasury tests. The project passed these tests precisely because it will open up opportunities to disadvantaged young people and their families.”
Just minutes from the Houses of Parliament, the building was let to the First Secretary of State until February 2027.
However, as part of the latest deal, a lease surrender which allows the existing occupier – the Ministry of Justice – to exit the property, was agreed.
The exit will save the department, advised by JLL, close to £2m pa in rent. It is one of a number of departments consolidating their property portfolios.
Tribeca bought the government-let building in 2003 for around £31m from Scottish Widows.
The sixth form, sponsored by Westminster School and the Harris Federation of academies, is due to open in September.
The DfE spokesman said: “This is an inspirational collaboration between the country’s top academy chain and one of the best private schools in the country. It will give hundreds of children from low-income families across London the kind of top-quality sixth form previously reserved for the better off.”
The DfE said it is giving local authorities £5bn to spend on new school places over this parliament.
JLL advised the purchaser; Morgan Williams acted for the vendor.
