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].
Global engineering consultancy Mott MacDonald has taken an additional 20K SF on the fourth floor of 10 Fleet Place, EC4, bringing its total space in the building to 60K SF.
In 2023, Mott MacDonald also took about 20K SF on the first floor and regeared its lease on the second floor, where it also had around 20K SF. Those leases run until 2040, and the two spaces have been refurbished. The new space will also be revamped.
The 185K SF office building in prime Midtown is managed by Addington Capital on behalf of Hong Kong-based The Crosby Group, which acquired the site in 2015 and has completed a phased renovation of the offices, including an updated reception.
Other major tenants include Interpath Advisory, Comcast and Hogan Lovells.
LEASES
The University of Sunderland has taken nearly 100K SF of office space at Harbour Exchange in London.
Savills, on behalf of Gaw Capital UK, facilitated the 15-year lease for about 96K SF at 4 and 5 HX. The university was an existing tenant of HX, having originally taken 10K SF in 2012.
“This was a unique opportunity to secure nine acres of private educational space in London, which provides such a high-quality environment to promote work and study,” Savills Director Josh Lamb said in a statement.
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Flexible office specialist Halkin has agreed to lease more than 40K SF at Invesco Real Estate's 107 Cheapside, having added 67K SF to its portfolio over the last 12 months.
In October, Halkin expanded its City portfolio with the opening of 68 King William Street, sharing the building with the latest location of The Wolesley restaurant as well as The Wagtail Rooftop Bar & Restaurant and PureGym, located in the basement.
Invesco Real Estate was advised by Knight Frank and Halkin by RX London.
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The Church Commissioners for England agreed to a 15-year lease with the National Theatre for a 36K SF warehouse in South Bermondsey, London.
The National Theatre will use the Bermondsey warehouse as part of a new large-scale sustainability initiative, bringing together costumes, props and recyclable scenery to a single location to encourage reuse and reduce carbon impacts, the company said.
The Church Commissioners for England acquired the warehouse in the 1980s for use as the Church of England Record Centre, housing the archives of the Church Commissioners, the General Synod and its predecessors, and other bodies relating to the Church of England.
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Segro Park Rainham has reached full occupancy following the agreement of a new lease with plumbing, heating and cooling specialist Wolseley, which has more than 500 UK branches.
Wolseley has agreed to occupy 28K SF across two units at the development. The company will join occupiers including Transport for London and London Ambulance Service.
Segro Park Rainham is part of the East Plus regeneration scheme, a partnership with the Greater London Authority, which is set to deliver 1.4M SF of industrial space across the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Newham.
ACQUISITIONS
Savills has expanded its flexible office business Workthere with the acquisition of flexible advisory business Situu. Established in 2019 by its four co-founders, Dan Brown, Tom Leahy, Peter Hall and Harry Murphy, Situu is a 10-location-strong London-based agency specialising in the delivery and marketing of managed office space on behalf of landlords.
Situu will be combined with Workthere, adding to its existing flexible office advisory service for occupiers, operators and landlords.
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Multi Corp. has bought a majority stake in UK specialist retail asset and property manager Realm, marking the return of Multi to the UK, where it had a significant presence between 2001 and 2021, including retail destinations Southgate Centre in Bath, Victoria Square in Belfast and Glasgow’s St. Enoch Centre.
The new company will be called Multi-Realm, and the existing team is being retained.
Realm was founded in 2001 and is an operator of retail destinations and designer outlets in the UK, including the London Designer Outlet in Wembley Park, Resorts World Birmingham, Lakeside Village in Doncaster and Ringsted Outlet in Denmark. It is also behind the development of the Cotswolds Designer Outlet, opening in spring 2025.
DEALS
Self-storage firm Lok'nStore has agreed to a sale to Belgian rival Shurgard in a £378M deal.
In a statement, the companies said the merger would “give Shurgard immediate access to attractive underlying market dynamics with strong demographic trends” in the UK, particularly in the south-east and Manchester.
Although Shurgard is the dominant self-storage provider in mainland Europe, it is fourth in the UK, behind Big Yellow, Safestore and private equity player Access Self Storage.
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Knight Frank has advised Tokyo-based Iino Kaiun Kaisha on its purchase of 111 Strand from ESAS Holdings.
The building comprises about 38K SF of Grade A office and retail space. The building occupies a corner site with a 100-foot frontage and has undergone a refurbishment, including upgrading the building’s end-of-trip facilities. It has achieved an energy performance certificate rating of B.
Knight Frank and CMS advised Iino Kaiun Kaisha. Capreon and Boodle Hatfield advised the vendor.
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Sirius Real Estate has completed four previously announced acquisitions in Germany and the UK totalling more than €100M. These include Vantage Point Business Village in Gloucestershire, which has been acquired for £48.25M.
In total, the acquisitions will add more than 1.5M SF of primarily industrial space to the group’s BizSpace portfolio. The acquisitions were made using the proceeds of a £147M capital raise in November.
Separately, the company has completed the disposal of a light industrial asset in Stoke-on-Trent for £3M. The asset, which comprises just over 55K SF of industrial space, was sold at a 1% premium to the last reported book value and was deemed noncore to the business.
FUNDING
Packaged Living and Aviva Investors have completed a deal to forward-fund the delivery of 121 new homes in Ebbsfleet, Kent, with a gross development value of £50M, from housebuilder Chartway Partnerships Group.
The funding marks the eighth investment made by Packaged Living and Aviva Investors since launching a single-family housing platform in November 2021. The partnership has funded the creation of almost 1,000 new homes across seven developments, with an additional 500 homes in exclusivity.
It is the second investment made by the Aviva Investors Real Estate Active Long Term Asset Fund.
PEOPLE
Orchard Street Investment Management has appointed Kathryn Barber head of responsibility and environmental, social and corporate governance. Barber will support the business in delivering measurable social and environmental impact on behalf of its inaugural impact fund, Orchard Street Social and Environmental Impact Partnership, the company said.
She joins from Great Portland Estates, where she was responsible for co-delivering the company’s road map to net-zero at the portfolio level. That included the establishment of a social impact strategy to integrate these initiatives across the business and overseeing all mandatory and voluntary reporting obligations.
