London’s biggest deals for April*
1 5 Churchill place, E14. (2nd floor)
36,562 sq ft
Tenant American Express.
2 Department W, 69-89 Mile End Road, E1 (lower ground)
24,132 sq ft
Tenant The Generation of Z
3 Lloyd’s Chambers, 1 Portsoken Street, E1 (6th floor)
20,269 sq ft
Tenant Knowledge Centre.
4 Moor Place, 72 Fore Street, EC2 (10th and 11th floors)
19,375 sq ft
Tenant CHP Consulting.
5 8 Fenchurch Place, EC3 (3rd floor)
18,718 sq ft
Tenant Pembroke Managing Agency.
*At time of going to press. Source: EGi data
Significant April deals
Oriana development W1 (sale) Notting Hill Estate (purchase)
Type of deal Investment
Sale price £400m
Purchase price £250m
Vendor/purchase Frogmore
Chris Berkin, EG’s West End correspondent, says: April saw a spectacular move from Frogmore, which traded a stake in the £600m Oriana development on Oxford Street for an opportunity in the £250m Notting Hill Estate. The fund manager, in a jv with Land Securities, sold the first two phases of Oriana to an overseas buyer – understood to be Zara founder Amancio Ortega – for more than £400m. Oriana sits between 6-17 Tottenham Court Road and 50 Oxford Street, W1, and the tranche sold includes the 147,000 sq ft Primark flagship store, a 41,000 sq ft extension and 35,000 sq ft of other shops. Frogmore is using its share of the spoils to go shopping in Notting Hill, taking on an estate with major redevelopment potential from Pears Group and LaSalle Investment Management.
Watermark Building, EC4
Type of deal Investment sale
Size 50% stake
Vendor Oxford Properties
Purchaser Union
Price £255m
Yield 4.3%
Jack Sidders, EG’s news editor, says: Oxford Properties’ sale of a 50% stake in Watermark Place – coupled with a refinancing of the entire building – crystalises a significant profit for the Canadian investor. Its initial 50% interest in what was then an unlet development opportunity, came at the top of the market in 2007 and was Oxford’s first UK deal. Despite the financial crisis, it secured a record letting to Nomura two years later. Oxford bought in the other half of the building for £200m in 2010 and financed it with a £140m loan. Now it has reduced its interest in the property back down to a 50% share with a £255m sale – reflecting a 4.3% yield – to Union, something of a surprise buyer given the trend for German open-ended fund managers to be major net sellers in London in recent years.
People, politics and peculiarities
Recruitment ramps up
The end of the financial year means the gloves are off when it comes to recruitment. Gerald Eve has poached Mark Lethbridge from Deloitte Real Estate to become a partner in the firm’s city team.
New MD for developer
Matthew Slade has joined Quintain as managing director of the developer’s Wembley Park scheme. Slade was previously with Westfield and worked on Westfield Stratford City, E20.
New recruits join the union
Not content with one new recruit, Union Street Partners – the 50:50 joint venture between Farebrother and Tuckerman – has taken on three. Vincent Cheung joins as a partner from Kalmars and Simon Smith and Rupert Cowling join from CBRE’s central London agency team.
Savills poaches for PRS boost
And the residential agents are up to it too. Savills has pinched Nick Vaughan and James Underhill from Hamptons International to work on residential development with a particular remit for pushing PRS which has seen values rising.
HSBC could withdraw from city
As Estates Gazette goes to press the results of the election are not yet known. But aside from Labour’s proposed mansion tax it was up to one of the banks to ruffle London feathers in the election run-up. HSBC fired a warning shot when it announced that it might move its HQ elsewhere. Ring-fenced retail operations and the threat of the UK leaving the EU are said to be the primary concerns.
Unlimited change for London
The changing nature of the London property market (it’s not just Zone 1 you know) has prompted JLL to launch (rebrand) a team dedicated to everything outside the London core. The team will cover fringe locations as far out as the north and south circular. And to prove it is not in Zone 1 anymore the casually dressed team was photographed in front of a graffiti-daubed, red brick looking warehouse building. A Zone 1-6 Oyster Card in a JLL-branded wallet comes as standard issue. Possibly…
More retail for E14 residents
Workers and residents at Canary Wharf, E14, have a new retail and leisure destination as Canary Wharf Group has opened the doors to its Crossrail Place scheme.
Hermes in office-to-resi win
Hermes Real Estate has won planning permission to convert
27 Soho Square, W1, from offices to residential with retail and leisure at ground floor level.
Silver lining for quays
Newham council has approved plans for the £3.5bn Silvertown Quays regeneration project, E16.
Mitsubishi’s city skyscraper
A new tower could grace the City’s skyline as Mitsubishi Estate Company London has unveiled plans for a £900m skyscraper in EC3.
Shell centre appeal granted
It was on, then off, then on and now it’s off again… local resident George Turner has been granted permission to appeal against the High Court’s rejection of his legal challenge to the £1.2bn Shell Centre, SE1, redevelopment.
Pub put back on the map
Developer CLTX has been ordered by Westminster council to rebuild the Carlton Tavern in Kilburn, NW6, after it demolished the pub without permission.
The EG London team gauges the trials and tribulations of the capital’s property market
