AXA Sun Life has bought out GAN’s share of the freehold of 20/21 St. James’s Square (pictured) for £32m.
The office building, which comprises 6500 sq m (70,000 sq ft) over seven floors including the basement, was sold to AXA Sun Life and French insurance company GAN in 1993. The purchase of GAN’s 50% share now makes AXA the sole owner.
The entire property is let to Grand Metropolitan for 25 years from September 1990 at an annual rent of £4,750,000. It was formally Grand Metropolitans headquarters building in the early nineties, but is now largely sublet.
The building has an interesting pedigree. Originally built between 1771 and 1774 by the owner, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, the façade and interior was the work of the famous architect Robert Adam. The house to the right, now used as boardrooms by Diagio, was where the Queen Mother grew up.
A second section was added in the 1930s and the third part – the “New Building” – was developed by Kumagai Gumi in the late 1980s to include a new linked building behind Nos. 20 and 21, with an entrance from Cleveland Place.
EGi News 28/06/01
