Almacantar Close To £290M Marble Arch Sale Ahead Of Loan Deadline

London developer Almacantar is on the verge of selling its Marble Arch Place mixed-use scheme for almost £290M to an Asian investor.

ARA Dunedin Asset Management is in advanced talks to buy the scheme at a price that would reflect a 4% yield, React News reported.

Marble Arch Place will comprise 95K SF of office space, 54 luxury apartments, a new cinema and five ground-floor leisure units. Designed by Rafael Viñoly, the project overlooking Hyde Park is due to be completed this year and is one of the largest new developments in the West End of the past decade. 

The £310M loan used to fund construction of the building is scheduled to be repaid in February 2022, according to accounts for the special purpose vehicle that owns the scheme filed with the Channel Islands-based International Stock Exchange in July. The loan was provided by hedge fund The Children’s Investment Fund and has an interest rate of 8.5%. 

Almacantar has tower developments at the western and eastern end of Oxford Street. While it is selling Marble Arch Place wholesale, it is continuing to sell the flats at its famous Centre Point tower at the eastern end of Oxford Street. Almacantar recently converted space in the building that had been earmarked for a restaurant into offices. 

If the deal completes, ARA Dunedin will have bought more than £1B of London assets across four deals in less than a year. In October 2020 it made its maiden UK acquisition with the £435M purchase of a 50% stake in the Nova office scheme in Victoria. In February, it bought the Ealing Cross office scheme in west London for £75M, and in June, it bought 3 Minster Court in the City for £353M.

Those previous three deals were all undertaken in joint ventures with Singaporean investors, whereas ARA may look to syndicate the equity in the Marble Arch Place acquisition to Korean investors, React reported.