CPPIB and Hermes Investment Management are looking to sell a prime West End redevelopment opportunity for circa £190m.
The partners are understood to have instructed Savills to find a buyer for Haymarket House, SW1, which is located close to Piccadilly Circus tube station and adjacent to the Crown Estate’s redevelopment of St James’s Market. It is also near New Zealand House, which the Crown Estate is planning to revamp.
The 123,122 sq ft property currently provides 35,431 sq ft of ground floor retail including tenants The Comedy Store and Tiger Tiger on long leases.
Above the retail is 81,019 sq ft of office space, the majority of which is vacant. There are currently three tenants on short leases – talent agency Curtis Brown Group, creative agency Innocean Worldwide and Zenimax Europe. The L-shaped, art deco-style building comes with planning approval to enhance the retail, reconfigure the office reception area and expand the office space by more than 10,000 sq ft.
CPPIB and Hermes IM acquired the property in 2015 from Landsec for around £160m. The pair have sold several properties over the past couple of years from their joint venture partnernship, including South Bank Central for more than £250m to Starwood Capital, and Aldgate House to Singapore-listed City Developments Ltd for £183m.
The move to sell Haymarket House follows the sale of Transport for London’s Westminster-located head office, another redevelopment opportunity, for more than the £110m quote price to Integrity International Group.
Other redevelopment opportunities on the market in the West End include Wingate House on Shaftesbury Avenue, and a development site in Covent Garden bounded by Drury Lane, Dryden Street, Arne Street and Shelton Street.
Hermes Investment Management declined to comment. CPPIB and Savills were contacted for comment.
