Weekly planning news from the central London boroughs
A weekly round up of the latest planning and property news from the central London boroughs
Camden
Property Week reports that Biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca UK has moved its headquarters to 2 Pancras Square in King’s Cross. The firm has taken an extra 22,000 sq ft at the office premises, adding to the 15,000 sq ft it has occupied since 2019. The total 37,000 sq ft space will become the pharma company’s new headquarters, following the relocation of its Luton team, and will be home to its medical, marketing, digital, communications, finance and HR divisions. A high-spec fit-out has been undertaken by Ekho Studio to support the business’s new workplace strategy, which encourages office-based working with added flexibility for staff.
Property Week reports that two separate office buildings on Chancery Lane in Holborn, London, have hit the market for a combined £136m, reflecting a surge in investor interest in the Midtown market. It is understood that the owner, a Singaporean joint venture between Metro Holdings and Lee Tim Kah Group, has appointed Colliers to market 5 Chancery Lane for £95m, a price that would reflect a yield of around 4.5%. Meanwhile, Property Week can reveal that abrdn has appointed Knight Frank to market 22 Chancery Lane for £41m, which would reflect a yield of just under 4.8%.
City of London
Property Week reports that Ho Bee Land exchanges contracts on The Scalpel purchase. Ho Bee Land (HBL) has exchanged contracts to buy City office tower The Scalpel – 16 months after Property Week revealed the building had been put up for sale. HBL will acquire all the ordinary shares of the Jersey SPV that owns the freehold interest of the property on 52 Lime Street for £718m. HBL has placed a deposit of £35.9m with the balance payable on completion on 7 March. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that owner US insurance group WR Berkley was selling the 406,000 sq ft office building to Ho Bee Land for £820m.
Kensington & Chelsea
The Evening Standard reports that a £900 per month studio flat in Notting Hill to rent with no oven and a toilet next to the kitchen. The top-floor apartment is on the market for £900 per month, but the prospective renters will have to contend with the lack of space. A flat in Notting Hill is available to rent for £900 per month, but there’s a catch. The space in the top-floor apartment is so small that the tiny kitchenette is directly next to the toilet and the flat has no oven. Instead, photos of the studio flat on Westbourne Park Road show a fridge, cupboards and a microwave secured to the wall. In the opposite corner a double bed and bedside table are placed beneath the flat’s single window. A dining table and two chairs sit at the end of the bed and next to the kitchen counter.
Southwark
Southwark News reports that the amount of social rented housing completed in Southwark decreased by 20 per cent between 2020 – 21, according to data published by the GLA. Social rent is low-cost rent offered by local authorities, comprising both council housing and housing association properties. This figure of – 20% refers to the number of new social rents delivered in the borough between 2020 – 21. It is a negative as the stat takes into account how many social rents were lost due to development or being purchased through the right to buy – amongst other things.
Tower Hamlets
Property Week reports that Vagina Museum finds new London opening in Bethnal Green. The Vagina Museum has found new London premises in Bethnal Green after leaving its first home in Camden Market last summer. The world’s first bricks and mortar vagina museum has been hunting for a new location since talks between the museum’s founders and Camden Market landlord Labtech broke down last August and it left the following month when its lease expired. The museum has pre-let space at ENTER, a new collective building and creative hub for the arts under construction in Bethnal Green.The new premises are expected to be around three times larger than the Vagina Museum’s original 1,300 sq ft Camden location.
Property Week reports that Market Halls Canary Wharf are to open at end of March. Market Halls is preparing to launch another London site. The Canary Wharf venue, the company’s third London site, will open in late March and house a line-up of kitchens and bars and a programme of community-led events. This will tie in with the reopening of Market Halls Oxford St, following extensive refurbishment and changes to the site. The line-up at Market Hall Canary Wharf Cargo will include operators from the group’s existing sites, including Gopal’s Corner [Roti King], DF Tacos and BaoziInn, while also bringing in new and exciting additions including Le Bab, Pasta Evangelists and Inamo Sukoshi.
Property Week reports that Canary Wharf launches managed office concept. Canary Wharf Group (CWG) is launching a fully fitted and managed office space called MadeFor. Designed and built by CWG’s in-house team, MadeFor provides fitted, furnished and dressed workspace that’s ready for immediate occupation or which can alternatively be delivered “to order”. MadeFor also offers businesses a fully managed solution, including cleaning, Wi-Fi and IT services, full maintenance and ‘handyman’ services, and refreshments. Citi is MadeFor’s first customer and has taken 95,000 sq ft at Forty Bank Street while Citi Tower, its UK and EMEA headquarters, at 25 Canada Square, is being refurbished.
Estates Gazette reports that as traditional office owners wait nervously to see if their buildings fill bacm up as the pandemic cases, even the most established are being forced to rethink their offerings – with Canary Wharf Group the latest to try a new way of wooping tenants. All eyes will now be on the Docklands estate and wether it can prove that businesses still want and need their offices.
Wandsworth
Balance Out Living secures consent for Wandsworth co-living scheme. Property Week reports that Balance Out Living, a new co-living platform backed by Oaktree Capital, has secured planning permission for its first development, in Wandsworth, south-west London. The scheme will comprise 213-studio apartments close to Battersea Park with amenities such as co-working spaces, communal kitchens, resident lounges, a cinema room, café, bar and gym. The property, on Culvert Road, will also feature green walls, gardens and landscaped terraces offering panoramic views of London. Balance Out Living has also agreed to develop a sports facility for the neighbouring Harris Academy school.
Battersea Power Station unveils first tranche of F&B openings. Battersea Power Station has revealed the first tranche of cafés, bars and restaurants set to open inside the Grade II Listed Power Station from September 2022. Le Bab, Where The Pancakes Are, Poke House, Clean Kitchen Club, Paris Baguette, Joe & The Juice and Starbucks are among some of the operators joining the Power Station line-up. Other additions to the location include a 20,000 sq. ft food hall offering an all-day dining experience and Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen & Bar. Sam Cotton, head of Leasing at Battersea Power Station Development Company, said: “Battersea Power Station has emerged as one of London’s leading food and drink destinations and this will only become stronger with the great mix of cafés, bars and restaurants opening inside the location, creating thousands of new jobs for the immediate and wider local communities.
Westminster
Property Week reports that Capital Group is under offer to take 250,000 sq ft of office space at the £825m Paddington Square development. The US financial services giant has been under offer for several months on 10 floors of the 18-storey scheme, also known as the Cube. Capital Group is expected to relocate from its current London headquarters at 40 Grosvenor Place, where its lease on 100,000 sq ft of space expires at the end of 2023. One senior market source described the deal as a coup for Paddington and said that Capital Group was likely to have signed a long-term lease at a rent of £90-plus per square foot. The source added that the deal reflected post-pandemic demand for top-quality office space.
Property Week reports that Capco posts return to operating profit for 2021. Capco posted a return to operating profit for the year to 2021 following its big operating loss for the year 2020. In its results for the year to 31 December 2021, the Covent Garden owner posted an operating profit of £66.8m compared to an operating loss of £686.5m for the year to 31 December 2020. Capco collected £70m in rent at a cost of £23m resulting in net rents of £46.4m. Ian Hawksworth, chief executive of Capco, said: “We are pleased with the strong level of leasing demand for Covent Garden which has contributed to a valuation uplift in the second half.
Property Week reports that Hedge fund Millennium takes over former Mayfair club. Hedge fund Millennium Management has pre-let a new headquarters in Mayfair, taking over a building being redeveloped from a private members’ club set up by KPMG. The firm signed for 41,100 sq ft at 20 Grosvenor Street, taking the entire building on a flexible lease from flexi office operator Fora. Fora will manage the Mayfair building for Millennium when the scheme is completed in the fourth quarter of this year. The landmark 20 Grosvenor Street and 19 Brook’s Mews building, which Grosvenor originally developed in 2014, will comprise 39,700 sq ft of best-in-class offices and 1,400 sq ft of retail space designed by award-winning architect Flanagan Lawrence.
General
Bisnow reports the 3 Numbers That Explain The London Office Market’s Slow Rebound. 1. Leases Are For Small Suites, And Shorter Terms. The trend toward shorter lease lengths and smaller deals has been underway for some time. The pandemic and its aftermath has now hardened the trend into a new normal. 2. The Flex Office Market Is Stuck. There was no movement in the price of grade-A serviced office desk rates in London in the last quarter of 2021. The average London price remained stuck at £739 per desk, per month. 3. Availability Is Rocketing, But Take-Up Is Not. Grade-A availability in Q4 2021 was up 31% over the year, yet deal-making is not keeping pace.