Weekly news from the Central London boroughs

A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London Boroughs

London Wide 

PW reports that Sadiq Khan has announced a partnership with housing association L&Q to deliver 20,000 new homes across the capital – 12,000 of which will be affordable. It is the first agreement under the Mayor of London’s £3.15bn affordable housing deal secured from government last November. The partnership will see £8bn invested with City Hall contributing £400m to help boost affordable housing delivery and to assist with land purchases and infrastructure costs. 

PW reports that Sidra Capital, a Saudi-based multi-family office, plans to embark on a £1bn investment programme in UK commercial real estate. The new venture, Sidra Capital UK, will target prime office buildings located across the capital from the West End to Canary Wharf. They bought the 71,500 sq ft Kinnaird House building, which spans nine storeys, from German fund manager GLL Real Estate Partners in March last year at a yield of 3.95%. 

City of London 

PW reports that Blackstone has secured a pre-let for the whole of the Pepper Store office at its Devonshire Square estate in the City of London. Equinix, the world’s leading global interconnection and data centre company, has agreed a 10-year lease to occupy all five levels of the 29,500 sq ft office. The firm will establish a new headquarter office at the self-contained building for its 200-plus staff and will move in later this summer. 

PW reports that PGIM Real Estate Finance (RFP) has agreed a £50.1m loan to an investor who acquired Fox Court, a 103,555 sq ft office property in London’s midtown district. The 15-year loan helped to finance the acquisition of the building that counts WeWork as its main tenant. Built in 1976, the building has seen two major refurbishments since its opening, most recently in 2015 when WeWork took occupation. WeWork is a market-leading provider of shared workspace and services for more than 90,000 members around the world. 

EG reports that British Land and Oxford Properties have signed premium fast food restaurant Bel-Air at Leadenhall Building EC3, which is taking 21,000 sq ft. Black Sheep Coffee is also taking 1,769 sq ft. The building is in the process of being sold to CC Land for £1.1bn. BN and Oxford Proporties were represented by Davis Coffer Lyons. 

City of Westminster 

PW reports that Pergola is to create a new al fresco dining experience at Paddington Central as part of British Land’s £100m transformation of the mixed-use campus adjacent to Paddington station. The company behind Pergola on the Roof at White City has signed a two year lease for a new 850-capacity venue, set over two floors on the site of 5 Kingdom Street. It will host four residencies, the first of which will launch in May and host five popular restaurant and bar concepts: Mamalan, DF/Mexico, Decatur, Patty & Bun and Raw Press. Each operator will offer a bespoke menu. 

PW reports that Investment into commercial property in London’s West End reached a new record of £1.93bn in the first quarter of the year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. The figure surpasses the West End’s previous record volume of £1.80bn, set in 2013, and exceeds the 5-year first quarter average by 22%. This is despite concerns over the UK’s exit from the EU. The figure was swelled by several large deals, including Ampersand in Soho which was sold by Cushman & Wakefield on behalf of Hong Kong’s private Peterson family to Emperor Holdings for £260m, reflecting £2,910/ sq ft and a net initial yield of 2.93%. 

EG reports that Richard Caring’s Annabel’s the property industry’s iconic haunt, has unveiled its new look ahead of reopening at the end of this year. Its new home is just two doors down from the original club, in a Grade 1 listed Georgian townhouse at Lancer’s 46 Berkeley Square, W1. Annabel’s, which has expanded to 26,000 sq ft, will open around the clock, with additional floors where members can work, dine and entertain. Restaurants, bars, private dining rooms and a cigar salon will be spread across four floors. The nightclub will be in the basement and a spa will be housed in the refurbished mews house with a separate entrance.

EG reports that H&M has launched Arket, a new brand which is opening its first shop in the former Banana Republic on Regent Street, W1. The shop will open in early autumn 2017 and launch online in 18 European countries with shops planned for Brussels, Copenhagen and Munich. The 10,000 sq ft corner site is one of the most prominent on the street and is next to H&M’s flagship in the same building. Persson bought the long leasehold of the 275,000 sq ft property in 2020 for 221m.  The Crown Estate owns the freehold.

EG reports that BNP Paribas Real Estate’s head of West End Investment, Steven Skinner, is leaving to join HB Reavis as a transactional director. Skinner has been head of BNP PRE’s West End office since 2015, and has advised on high-profile deals such as the purchase of 7-8 St James’ Square, SW1 and the off-market disposal of Bond Street House. At HB Reavis, Skinner will be responsible for developing the UK business and leading teams through acquisitions, leasing, financing and marketing.

EG reports that The Department for Exiting the European Union is planning to sublease offices at the Ministry of Defense Whitehall headquarters as it looks to accommodate it’s expanding Brexit team. The Brexit department expects to have about 400 staff by the end of the 2016-2017 financial year. Civil servants seconded to the team are currently based in the Cabinet Office HQ at 70 Whitehall and 1 Horseguards, SWQ. The growing team will spill into the MoD’s Main building, which comprises 690,000 sq ft of offices across 10 levels.

PW reports that Fitness firm Equinox has been given the green light by Westminster City Council to proceed with plans to convert the ground, basement and mezzanine levels of 12 St James’s Street in London from a restaurant and bar into an exclusive fitness club. The building occupies a prominent location at the corner of St James’s Street and King Street and is considered a building of ‘architectural merit’ as well as sitting within the St James’s Conservation Area. External alterations to the building have been kept to a minimum with façade alterations in the approved planning application including new louvres to the basement level façade. To respond to the club’s specialist fitness programme, major structural modifications were proposed internally in the form of a modified mezzanine level. Construction will begin in summer 2017. Equinox was advised by architect Woods Bagot, Gerald Eve on planning and Knight Frank on the lease acquisition of the building.

PW reports that High-end Chinese restaurant chain Imperial Treasure is set to open in the UK at Barings Real Estate Advisers’ 10 Waterloo Place in London. It has taken the 8,500 sq ft mezzanine, ground and basement levels at the St James’s scheme on a 25-year lease and will open in 2018. The group has 30 restaurants in Singapore, Hong Kong and China, and the Shanghai branch was recently awarded two Michelin stars. Barings acquired the grade II-listed property at 7-10 Waterloo Place in 2014 and has since refurbished it. Office space totaling 23,000 sq ft at the adjoining 8 Waterloo Place will be launched to the market in April. Colliers International’s central London restaurants team advised Barings on the transaction while Savills acted for Imperial Treasure.

 

RBKC 

PW reports that Melford Special Situations has put up for sale a development site in Kensington, west London, with planning permission for a new high-end healthcare facility. It has appointed CBRE to sell the freehold of Avon House, which has planning consent for a 36,000 sq ft scheme, for a price 

thought to be around £30m. Once developed, the building would accommodate up to 42 bedrooms, including 24 suites, as well as a kitchen and a gym. The planning consent for the site allows for a number of medical uses, such as neurological rehabilitation and dementia and cancer treatment. 

EG reports that Transport for London has launched a search for a development partner to restore and redevelop South Kensington Underground station, SW7. A development brief for the iconic London site shows an indicative scheme comprising 30,809 sq ft  of shops 24,438 sq ft of residential and 12, 853 sq ft of offices. Savills is leading the process. The existing site extends to 35,941 sq ft of residential, office and retail space in and around the main listed arcade. The site also includes land along the southern edge of the station on Pelham Street. TfL plans to improve the commercial space and shops within the station and refurbish the four-storey buildings at 20-34 Thurload Street, with the potential to place a single storey on the distinctive Bullnose Building.

Southwark 

PW reports that Greystar acquires landmark London Bridge, Capital House site for resi conversion. Greystar has acquired Capital House in London Bridge from a private investor for an undisclosed sum. The 31-story site known as The Quill is on the corner of Weston Street and St Thomas Street and has two planning consents in place – one for student accommodation and one for residential. One of these consents is for a 470-bed student accommodation development while the other is for 119 luxury residential apartments, granted via a change of use application in September 2015. 

Wandsworth 

PW reports that Chinese developer R&F Properties has exchanged contracts to buy Vauxhall Square, a planned 1.5m sq ft mixed-use scheme in Nine Elms, from CLS Holdings for £157.77m. The price paid represents a 45% premium to the book value of £100m as of December last year. The developer will take control of the 3.4-acre site and plans to invest £1bn in delivering the scheme, which will feature 245,000 sq ft of offices, 578 apartments, 33,500 sq ft of retail, one hotel, a 50-bedroom hostel for the homeless and 40,655 sq ft of leisure space.