Top five biggest deals
EG’s experts choose the most significant deal of the summer:
West End
Type of deal: Investment
Property: Shell Mex House, WC2
Seller: Westbrook Partners
Buyer: Sirosa
Size: 550,000 sq ft
Price: £610m
Joanna Bourke, EG’s West End correspondent, says As the summer lull kicked in and half of the property world jetted off on their jollies, one of the largest off-market “Shell shock” deals was done, in the form of Sirosa – on behalf of the private German Conley family – buying Shell Mex House, WC2. It paid £610m – a 4.2% yield. The transaction, which Estates Gazette revealed exclusively (20 July, p27), was at a price £116m higher than the vendor Westbrook Partners paid for it in 2007. It came just two months after Sirosa bought the Kensington Roof Gardens building, W8, for close to £225m. The deal serves to demonstrate that, for foreign parties desperate for a West End trophy, there is no time for price barriers or a holiday.
City
Type of deal: Investment stake
Property: Half stake in 4.4m sq ft Broadgate Estate
Value: £1.7bn for half stake
Seller: Blackstone
Purchaser: Thought to be Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC
Jack Sidders, EG’s City correspondent, says The deal of the summer – probably of the year and arguably of the decade – was Blackstone’s sale of a half stake in Broadgate for around £1.7bn. As EG went to press, the US private equity giant was in talks with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC to sell the half share in the 4.4m sq ft complex it bought in 2009. If it completes, Blackstone will net a hefty return on the £75m of equity it invested in the original purchase from British Land, which decided to sell to shift around £2bn of debt from its balance sheet. For GIC it is an intriguing move: the estate requires substantial capital expenditure and represents a far cry from the dry investment deals which it has been associated with in the Square Mile.
On the move
A new office in London and a double departure for Jones Lang LaSalle. William Nelson, who co-ran the high street landlord team, and Myles McKinnon, senior surveyor, have jumped the corporate ship to join McKinnon’s brother, Fergus, at his niche retail agency .
TwentyRetail has also been shopping around for new staff over the summer, having poached Ian Parish from BNP Paribas Real Estate.
CBRE was celebrating over the summer as it pipped Jones Lang LaSalle, Knight Frank and Lambert Smith Hampton to the high-profile Gherkin Tower management mandate. To CBRE say: “”; to the rest: “The isn’t the only iconic tower on the skyline.”
And now for something different
A 3,000-strong sit-in? Sort of. Crossrail’s archaeologists will next year start removing 3,000 skeletons to make way for London’s new underground train service. The remains are from the burial ground underneath Liverpool Street station, where for 150 years paupers, religious ?non-conformists and inmates from the nearby Bedlam mental hospital ?were buried.
A freedom of information request has revealed that Pickles is in a pickle over a planning application on the South Bank. Communities secretary Eric Pickles and planning minister Nick Boles ignored officials from their own department in approving plans for Chelsfield’s £800m Elizabeth House, next to . With Unesco, Westminster council and culture secretary Ed Vazey recommending that the scheme go to a public inquiry, Pickles rubber-stamped the plans and now Westminster and English Heritage have applied for a judicial review.
Property and politics
London Mayor Boris Johnson seems to have put airport battles to one side and is now proclaiming on regeneration. He described the as “one of the most exciting development opportunities in London” as plans for 3,000 homes there won approval. It must be hard not to pick favourites, especially when there are so many exciting regeneration projects – Battersea/Nine Elms, Stratford, , White City and so on. The owners of Heathrow and businesses nearby will be hoping he doesn’t get his way with his new hub airport plans and add Heathrow to the regeneration list.
Conservative and Labour councillors at Westminster council clashed over the provision of affordable housing in the borough. The Conservative-controlled council was criticised for approving four luxury housing schemes totalling 198 flats, none of which is affordable.
The council defended the “rich man’s playground” title levied at it by saying that contributions would be made to its affordable housing fund, which would ultimately provide far more housing at a cheaper location.
