This Week's London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email [email protected].
Housebuilder Greencore Homes has secured £30M from M&G Investments, with the equity investment to be used to drive expansion, initially by targeting land acquisitions across the south-east of England.
Since M&G’s initial £15M investment in the company around two years ago, Greencore has been growing with the ambition to become a national housebuilder with a target to build 10,000 homes over the next decade.
Greencore’s homes are designed to be highly energy efficient and to meet Passive House thermal performance standards, and the company said it is looking for new partnerships to deliver affordable and private housing for rent and for sale in addition to its existing partnership with M&G Real Estate.
The £45M total investment from M&G is from Catalyst, a £5B purpose-led private assets strategy.
DEALS
Regal London has agreed to purchase a site above Swiss Cottage underground station at 100 Avenue Road from Essential Living.
In 2016, planning permission was secured for 184 homes, commercial and community uses at the site. The basement has been completed, but site redevelopment has stalled since, and Regal London said it will seek amendments to the existing permission and in line with the latest fire safety requirements, including a second staircase.
CORPORATE
Co-living specialist Built Asset Management has acquired its fourth company in under three years after buying ProCo-Living.
“ProCo-Living’s shared ethos of providing high-end accommodation options to young professionals in London was aligned to the fast-growing BAM brand, which operates over 1,500 rooms across the capital,” BAM said in a statement.
BAM operates over £350M worth of London real estate after also acquiring Capital Living, Kingdom Houses and Stanley Rose Houseshares.
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Samsung Electronics and Watkin Jones Group have joined in a long-term partnership, launching with a flagship build-to-rent project in Cardiff.
Part of a wider £1B regeneration project in the Welsh capital, Samsung has been awarded an exclusive supply agreement to provide technology solutions for 715 BTR apartments for the project at Central Quay, which broke ground in March 2023.
Samsung will provide technologies for projects including purpose-built student accommodation, BTR and traditional homes, including air-source heat pumps and domestic appliances.
LEASING
Helical and Ashby Capital have let the circa 16K SF eighth floor of The JJ Mack Building at 33 Charterhouse Street, EC1, on a 15-year lease to international arbitration law company Three Crowns. The firm plans to relocate from its existing offices at New Fetter Place in early 2025.
The recently developed building provides over 200K SF of offices across 11 floors, alongside 5,500 SF of ground-floor retail. It has an energy performance certificate A rating and is targeting a BREEAM Outstanding rating and a NABERS five-star assessment for energy in use, the companies said.
This letting comes shortly after it was announced that J Sainsbury took the first through third floors, comprising 68K SF. With the 38K SF on the sixth and seventh floors let to Partners Group and the 13K SF ninth floor let to Corio Generation, part of the Macquarie Group, The JJ Mack Building is now 67% occupied.
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Regal London has agreed on a pre-let with Epson UK at The Clarendon Works in Watford, set to open in the third quarter.
Epson UK has taken circa 31K SF across the third and fourth floors of The Clarendon Works on a 10-year lease, and the agreement follows a deal with flexible office provider YoooServ in November to take 17K SF on the ground and first floors for 12 years.
The deals with Epson and YoooServ bring The Clarendon Works to over 30% let, with six floors in advanced negotiations, leaving two floors available. The Clarendon Works will provide 140K SF of Grade A office space over 12 floors.
Lambert Smith Hampton and Bray Fox Smith are letting agents for The Clarendon Works. Savills advised Epson.
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Hines has secured fashion retailer Abercrombie & Fitch for a new store over two floors at 325 Oxford Street on a multiyear lease in its mixed-use retail and office building, acquired on behalf of the Hines European Value Fund 2 in March 2020.
Positioned on the corner of Oxford Street and Bond Street, Abercrombie & Fitch will have prime double-height frontage across the ground and first floors. The retailer expects to move in and start trading in early 2025.
In addition to retail, the building incorporates 31K SF of prime office space called The Burlian over the second to seventh floors of the building, now fully let. The scheme has secured an EPC A rating and is aiming to achieve BREEAM Excellent and SmartScore Platinum accreditations.
Hines was represented by Cushman & Wakefield and Savills.
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The Ice Factory is fully let after leasing its fourth-floor rooftop unit to Cornus, a new dining concept from the team behind the Medlar Restaurant in Chelsea.
Set to open later this year at Grosvenor’s Eccleston Yards, which The Ice Factory is situated within, the lease follows lettings to Psycle London and Javelin Global Commodities.
FUNDS
Independent investment firm Landfair Capital has closed its inaugural fund, Landfair EDO.
Focusing on the UK, Ireland, Germany and Spain, the pan-European fund provides structured capital solutions, and Landfair specialises in “situations that require a deep fundamental understanding of asset values and in identifying pockets of inefficiency or dislocation within key European markets,” the company said in a statement.
This includes nonperforming loans and distressed debt, credit and hybrid strategies, and special situations. Since the initial close of Landfair EDO, the fund has deployed approximately half of its total commitments.
DEVELOPMENT
Watkin Jones has reached practical completion of a build-to-rent development in Ravensbourne Place in Lewisham. The development was delivered by Watkin Jones on behalf of Legal & General as part of a larger 322-unit project.
The final block comprises 184 units, and the phased completion follows the handover of 138 units in September.
The site is built on a former Tesco car park and comprises a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments for rent over 35 floors. Amenities include a library, private dining room, games room and cinema, plus landscaped gardens.
PEOPLE
The Langham Estate has appointed Malcolm Pugh as CEO. The appointment comes as the sale of 27 assets in the northern end of the estate, known as the Lotus Portfolio, completes.
Pugh was chief operating officer at the Fitzrovia Estate and joined the company in 2011 as financial controller before taking the position of finance director in 2012. He takes over from Ahsan Ellahi, who departed in 2023 after 13 years as CEO, following the launch of the Lotus Portfolio.
The majority of the 27 properties, comprising retail and office buildings, has been acquired by Oval Real Estate. The residential asset in the portfolio has been acquired by Concord.
