On Monday, Chris Grigg, in what will become known as his “two silent princes in the tower” moment, looked like a man who had been on a successful diet.
The boss of British Land looked thinner than William and as slender as Harry. The princes had lent their royal presence to a party on the
42nd floor of the Cheesegrater, EC3, to celebrate the opening of the elegant and imperious tower known, for official purposes only, as 122 Leadenhall Street.
Much of their royal highnesses’ time was rightly spent closeted with those responsible for the project. Eventually, William and Harry appeared in front of the crowd and stepped on stage. They stood like uneasy sentries, either side of a curtain, waiting to pull the strings during 15 minutes of speeches.
Finally, BL chairman John Gildersleeve invited the “stereophonic princes to do their stereophonic thing”. Both gave him an old-fashioned look, did their thing with the strings, then exited stage right, without a word, as no doubt planned.
One dreads to imagine the negotiations that went on with the palace. But, hey, the champagne then came out and everybody suddenly felt more relaxed.
The silent treatment has generally been applied to rental levels achieved on the 610,000 sq ft tower. Tenants are obviously shy of letting their clients know they have paid top dollar for prestige space – £90 per sq ft for the top floors, we are advised.
The numbers will eventually be able to be discerned by peering at the small print in BL’s annual accounts. But Grigg’s decision to press the restart button in 2010 was prescient. The Jersey-based Leadenhall Holding Company’s numbers are in the BL report for the year to March 2015. They show a value of £772m for the tower, which is half-owned by Oxford Properties. This figure includes a £201m revaluation surplus. What will the 90%-let Cheesegrater be worth when filled? About £1bn, if you assume an average rent of £75 per sq ft and a 4.5% yield. Stretch the rent to £80 and squeeze the yield to 4% and the value soars to £1.2bn.
REITs such as BL are supposed to be recycling capital – no capital gains tax, remember. It is planning a major development programme down in Canada Water. Now seems like a very good time for BL to sell its half of the Cheesegrater. Well, doesn’t it?
Close, and yes, cigars
No royalty, but a very posh party indeed was held two weeks ago by Land Securities in the penthouse suites of its 100-flat development at King’s Gate on Victoria Street, SW1. It’s not often you can nick a cigar, grab a Martini and go smoke on the roof terrace of a £10m flat and pretend to be rich.
I digress, back to business. LandSec estimates the project will cost £161m. The price list shows the 108,700 sq ft of flats selling around the £2,000 per sq ft mark. That is a total development value of nearly £220m, ignoring the 7,500 sq ft of retail. So, time for LandSec boss Rob Noel to break out the cigars? Not yet. Three penthouses valued at £30m in total have yet to be sold.
OUTstanding property people
Sad to see only four property names on the Financial Times’ list of 100 OUTstanding (sic) list of gay business leaders published on Monday. But glad to see Brian Bickell, boss of Shaftsbury, and David Mann, partner at surveyor Tuffin Ferraby Taylor, both recognised for their work in setting up and running Freehold, an LGBT networking group for the property sector. Even better to see British Land boss Chris Grigg lending his support as an official “ally”.
Also glad to report that what used to be called “the pink pound” is looking to invest in property – in retirement homes, would you believe?
I had a call last week from someone looking to find professional partners for Tonic Housing, a London-based group aiming to build homes for senior members of the LGBT community. There are one million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual folk aged over 50 in the UK today, says Tonic. Quite a community.
