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

Camden

PW reports that Orchard Street Investment Management has completed the acquisition of 36-38 Hatton Garden in Clerkenwell, London for £28.8m. The asset was acquired from Dorrington on behalf of St James’s Place UK at a net initial yield of 4.66%. The multi-let property provides 25,226 sq ft of internal floor space and has been refurbished to provide warehouse style workspace with multiple roof terraces.  The asset sits on the eastern side of Hatton Garden in London’s Midtown market and is set to benefit from the imminent arrival of Crossrail at Farringdon Station, just 200 metres from the property.

City of London

EG reports that China Resourses Land and NorthStar Realty Europe have completed the purchase of 20 Gresham Street, EC2 for £300m – a yield of just over 4%. The 242,800 sq ft building  was bought from AXA Investment Managers and is CRL’s first acquisition in Europe. It is currently let to tenants including ICBC, TSB and TLT with rents across the building around £53 per sq ft. Hogan Lovells acted for the buyers. Cushman & Wakefield acted for AXA. 

EG reports that Deloitte’s London office at Athene Place, EC4 is being prepared for sale by owner Commerz Real. GM Real Estate and Savills have been appointed to advise on the potential sale of the 130,000 sq ft building at 66 shoe lane.  If the sales process goes ahead, the asking price will be around £120m 0 a net yield of circa 5.25%. The block is fully occupied by Deloitte, which has a lease until 2027 with a break in 2019. 

PW reports that Workspace Group has confirmed it is in talks to buy Salisbury House in the City of London for £158m. The company, which provides flexible office space throughout London, said it was in talks for the site at 28-31 Finsbury Circus in a statement to the London Stock Exchange this morning. Yesterday, Workspace revealed it is set to open more than 1m sq ft of new office space in the next three years. It also delivered its annual figures to 31 March, showing a 3.3% rise in net asset value (NAV) per share to £9.53 in the year ending 31 March 2017. Workspace also revealed net rental income was up 6.9% to £79.2m.

PW reports that Mitsui Fudosan UK and development partner Stanhope have confirmed two further office lettings at Angel Court, bringing the City office building to more than one third let. The partnership has signed up consultant WYG and an unnamed economic consultancy firm to 10-year leases on the upper ‘sky floors’ at the 300,000 sq ft building. The deals take the total lettings at Angel Court, which completed in February, to in excess of 107,000 sq ft and follow three office lettings comprising more than 90,000 sq ft last month. 

PW reports that Skanska has completed a letting to challenger bank Aldermore at the Monument Building in the City of London as it prepares to sell the 94,000 sq ft office. The bank has taken the 10,428 sq ft sixth floor of the building, which is next to the monument to the Great Fire of London, to accommodate its growing London team. It is the last-but-one letting to be confirmed at the Monument Building, with just one floor now available. Savills represented Skanska in the leasing and Caddis Consultancy advised Aldermore.

Hammersmith & Fulham

PW reports that Gulf-based multi-family office Tilad has made its first UK acquisition by completing on a deal to buy One Queen Caroline Street in Hammersmith. The purchase of the 83,000 sq ft site, formerly Coca Cola’s UK headquarters, from a fund advised by Brockton Capital and Landid was revealed last month.  The deal marks the first UK acquisition for Tilad having invested heavily in Europe in recent years, including a €600m Nordic logistics portfolio.

Lambeth 

EG reports that ITV has submitted plans to redevelop its London Television Studios site on the South Bank, SE1. The 25-storey landmark will be demolished to make way for a 38-storey residential tower  providing up to 270 homes, with lower-rise podiums housing studios, offices and hospitality space. Cundall Johnston & Partners is advising ITV. 

PW reports that Almacantar has pre-let over 280,000 sq ft to WeWork, the co-working operator, at Two Southbank Place, joining Shell, which had already committed to 250,000 sq ft at One Southbank Place. The deal represents the largest in the market this year. Combined with the pre-let at One Southbank Place, Almacantar has now fully pre-let the office space at Southbank Place, a year ahead of completion. Two Southbank Place will be the largest property in WeWork’s global portfolio, which includes locations in 44 cities around the world. One and Two Southbank Place are located in a new 1.4m sq ft mixed-use development next to the River Thames and Waterloo station, being delivered by Canary Wharf Group and Qatari Diar.

Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea

PW reports that Cogress UK has completed its third exit this year following the £8.1m sale of luxury apartment Eaton Mansions. The company secured a 23.39% return for investors for the duration of the project, which was 22 months long.

Cogress raised £1.7m of equity for the development of the property in 2016 and secured a 12.87% gross return per annum.

Wandsworth

PW reports that Greystar has vowed to press ahead with plans to further expand its build-to-rent (BTR) portfolio this year following its £101m acquisition of two sites in Nine Elms,  south-west London, for an 894-unit development.The developer  will partner with London housebuilder Telford Homes to obtain  planning and deliver the project. Greystar Europe’s managing director of investments, Mark Allnutt, told Property Week that the firm was targeting at least one more large deal before the end of the year. 

“We’re hoping for others this year,” he said. “I think one more for the year would be good. Anything with more than 250 apartments works for us, so anything from that up to 2,000 units.”

Allnutt said Greystar had confidence in the long-term potential of Nine Elms despite current concerns over the health of the top end of the London residential market.

Westminster

PW reports that Luxury fashion retailer Matchesfashion.com has signed a lease at Grosvenor Britain and Ireland’s 5 Carlos Place on Mount Street, where it will open a new six-level store. It will offer a selection of high-end fashion brands across ready-to-wear, footwear and accessories for both men and women within the 7,408 sq ft Edwardian townhouse just off Berkeley Square. This will be the one-time online-only retailer’s fourth physical store in the UK, following locations in Marylebone, Notting Hill and Wimbledon. The six-storey property will play host to events, as well as offering three floors of private shopping and two floors of retail space.

PW reports that Serviced office provider London Executive Offices (LEO) has leased three floors at 20 North Audley Street from Global Holdings Management Group. It has acquired 31,600 sq ft of grade A office space on a 15-year lease, taking its total portfolio to 820,000 sq ft over 35 assets. The new space comprises the first, second and fifth floors of the building, with the fifth floor featuring a private roof terrace.  20 North Audley Street is a newly refurbished corner building located in close proximity to Selfridges.