Cromwell Property Group has sold Imperial Place in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, to a fund managed by First Property Group for £62.5m.
Since acquiring the four buildings in August 2014, Cromwell has refurbished the café and 29,000 sq ft of office space.
It has signed 11 new leases on 79,000 sq ft of space, with average rents increasing from £18.50 per sq ft to £22.50 per sq ft, and a headline rent of £25 per sq ft signed.
The 220,540 sq ft office complex has 24 tenancies and 18 business occupiers, including Affinity Sutton Homes, Alstom Transport, Buyagift, Just Eat, Regus, Signet Trading and Taylor Wimpey.
Stephen Cahoon, head of UK asset management at Cromwell Property Group, said: “A key driver for our acquisition of Imperial Place was the identification of an opportunity to improve and relet the vacant space in a market with reducing office stock.
“Office-to-residential conversion had been increasingly active resulting in a very tight office market.
“Our asset management team has done a great job and added real value by creating a quality product that appeals to occupiers, taking occupancy from 88% to 100% and increasing the annual rent roll by 29%.”
Gerald Eve acted for Cromwell Property Group and Knight Frank advised Fprop.
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