Weekly property news from the central London boroughs

A weekly round up of the latest property news from the central London boroughs

City of London
PW reports that Aberdeen Standard Investments has put 100 Cheapside on the market for £136m, reflecting a yield of 4.25%. The fund manager has appointed HFF to sell the 100,000 sq ft building. The building is fully let for an average of 10 and a half years with an average rent of £65/sq ft. Standard Life Investments bought the building vacant in 2014 in an off-market deal from a joint venture between CarVal Investors, Orion Capital Managers, the City of London Corporation and Quadrant Estates. It landed its first tenant, FTSE 100 company Ashtead Group, in June 2015 when the industrial equipment rental company took 10,500 sq ft at £75/sq ft. The building reached capacity in February 2017 when Standard Life let 11,247 sq ft to law firm Goodwin Proctor on a 15-year term.
PW reports that The Scalpel is now more than 50% let after National Australia Bank (NAB) and Lombard International signed leases to take space in the 35-storey building. NAB has signed for 26,864 sq ft on floors nine and 10 at 52 Lime Street, while financial services company Lombard has taken 9,189 sq ft on the 27th floor.
City of Westminster
PW reports that TK Maxx will open a shop on Oxford Street for the first time after signing a deal to take a former New Look store. The discount fashion retailer has struck a deal to fill the 30,000 sq ft store vacated by New Look at 203-207 Oxford Street. It has signed a 10-year lease for an annual rent of £2.5m at the four-floor store, which is owned by Pontegadea – the investment vehicle of the Spanish billionaire founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega. The new store will open in spring 2019.
PW reports that Knotel has signed two lease agreements for offices in London. The flexible workspace provider will open a 14,075 sq ft site in Baker Street and a 23,078 sq ft office on New Cavendish Street. Combined with three lettings it signed a month ago, Knotel will occupy 62,079 sq ft in London.
PW reports that Rothesay Life is poised to move out of the Cheesegrater after less than four years at the building and relocate to the West End, Property Week understands. The specialist insurance and risk management firm is believed to be under offer to move to The Post Building, where it would triple its footprint. Rothesay currently occupies 13,594 sq ft on level 25 at the Leadenhall Building, commonly known as the Cheesegrater. The firm is understood to be close to taking an entire floor at The Post Building in the West End, signing for 44,000 sq ft of office space.
PW reports that The Qatar Investment Authority has agreed to buy Grosvenor House hotel in London’s Mayfair from private US investor Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation. A deal is thought to have been agreed for the second sale of Grosvenor House in little over a year after Ashkenazy acquired the 1920s-built hotel last July from Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group. Sahara Grosvenor House Hospitality bought Grosvenor House – operated by Marriott International – in 2010 for £470m. The price of the two subsequent sales has been undisclosed, with Ashkenazy making its acquisition as part of a $2.3bn (£1.8bn) portfolio buy of “global iconic assets”.
EG reports Cording Real Estate Group has acquired the long leasehold for 111 Strand, WC2, for £46m – a net yield of 4.25%. Cording acted as adviser for a group of investors, which purchased the property from DTZ investors. The site comprises 30,549 sq ft of office space and three retail units of over 7,232 sq ft.
Hackney
EG reports that Southern Housing has bought an £85m consented mixed-use development in east London from the Aitch Group. Knight Frank advised Aitch Group on the sale of the 1.6-acre site at 1-7 Dace Road, Hackney Wick, E3. The development has consent for 110 homes and 68,000 sq ft of flexible-use workspace in four blocks of between five and six storeys, with some single-storey elements.
Kensington and Chelsea
PW reports Capital & Counties (Capco) is in talks to sell its Earls Court holdings to Li Ka-shing’s company CK Asset Holdings. The talks come as Capco continues its preparations for a possible demerger, splitting its Covent Garden and Earls Court estates into separate listed entities. In a statement, Capco said it had “received a number of proposals in relation to Capco’s interests in Earls Court”, including from CK Asset Holdings. Earlier this year, Earls Court’s latest valuation revealed that it had endured writedowns of more than £450m since 2016.
Tower Hamlets
EG reports that Ballymore and Hammerson have launched revised proposals for the regeneration of the Bishopsgate Goodsyard, E1. The new plans would create a 10-acre, mixed-use urban quarter in Shoreditch with a focus on lower building heights and the creative industries. Plans for the site have been in train since 2014, but the previous application was called in by Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, the following year. In 2016, the Greater London Authority recommended permission should be refused.