RW1 has started a £500m central London spending spree by buying a Native Land’s OneThreeSix building on George Street, W1.
The new investment vehicle, launched by Native Land’s founders alongside private Asian investors, paid around £60m for the 44,500 sq ft Marylebone office.
RW1, launched this month by Montrose Land, the private investment vehicle owned by Native Land founders Alasdair Nicholls and Jonathan Mantovani, will focus on forward purchasing assets under construction and directly undertaking value-add opportunities in central London. It has a warchest of £500m thanks to co-investment from a number of Asian high-net-worth family offices.
Native Land boss and RW1 partner Alasdair Nicholls said: “The launch of RW1 and the appointment of Native Land as its asset manager reflects the strong personal connections we enjoy with co-investment partners from Asia and the trust they place in us to find and deliver first-rate assets. The relationship with RW1 adds a new dimension to Native Land’s business alongside our well-established development partnerships with leading UK and international co-investor partners.”
OneThreeSix, Native Land’s recently completed office development on The Portman Estate, was fully let prior to completion to be the new global HQ for fintech company Smart Pension. Smart signed a 15-year lease in July 2021, at a headline rent of £82 a sq ft. OneThreeSix is one of the first all-electric powered office buildings in central London and is operationally carbon zero.
Finn Carew, MD for investments at RW1, said: “OneThreeSix typifies the high-quality contemporary office developments that RW1 is looking to purchase. RW1 plans to build an investment portfolio of new-era workplace buildings, which meet the preferences of today’s occupiers for environmentally sustainable places designed for wellbeing, creativity, innovation, and collaborative working.”
Native Land will identify, acquire and manage all assets for RW1 going forward, while RW1’s acquisitions will include both third-party assets and future Native Land commercial developments. Investments will be either new, best-in-class developments or outdated assets which can be refurbished and repositioned to provide the standards of sustainability, flexibility and workplace wellness which occupiers and institutional investors now demand.
RW1 secured debt finance for the acquisition from OCBC Bank.
