LaSalle offers Square Mile office as hotel conversion play

LaSalle Investments has put a City of London office up for sale for £30m, pitching it to buyers as a possible hotel conversion. Savills is marketing 29 Clements Lane, EC4, for a guide price that reflects a net initial yield of 7.5%. Built in the 1980s, the 60,368 sq ft building was refurbished in 2011 but is now being marketed as a flexible investment. While the building comprises office, leisure and ancillary accommodation that could be refurbished to provide a best-in-class office, the building is also being presented with the potential to be repositioned as a hotel. Hotel and office feasibility studies by architects Aukett Swanke highlighted the potential to increase the size of the building and add terraces. The option to reposition the building as a hotel with two additional floors has also been explored through a pre-application to the City of London, which received positive results. Currently let to financial services company Transact and gym operator Foundry Fitness, bringing in a total rent of £2.3m annually, the building could be fully vacant by September 2025.