London Office With £200M Of Debt Remains Unsold 600 Days After Administration
An office in Canary Wharf bought for £270M remains unsold and off the market almost 600 days after the vehicle that owns it went into administration.
A report from administrators to the special-purpose vehicle that owns the 313K SF 5 Churchill Place in the Docklands district says that a sales process begun in August 2023 has been postponed. Discussions are ongoing with the lenders as to when might be the best time to remarket it.
Hong Kong investor Cheung Kei bought 5 Churchill Place for £270M in 2017. The building had £196M of debt secured against it when administrators were appointed in May 2023, with Lloyds Bank the senior lender and Hanwha Asset Management the mezzanine lender.
JPMorgan Chase occupies the building on a lease that expires in 2029. It took over the lease when it bought Bear Stearns in 2008. Its main London office is the nearby 500K SF 25 Bank Street.
Savills was appointed to market the building in summer 2023. In early 2024, it was reported that investment firm Ariomori Group had agreed to buy the building for £110M.
But by March, that deal had fallen apart, CoStar reported. The administrators’ report filed in the first week of this year showed that nonsales process is ongoing.
A second building owned by Cheung Kei in Canary Wharf, 20 Canada Square, went into receivership in June 2023, and there is no public record of a sale. The investor bought the 581K SF building for £410M in 2017.