Landsec Buy Paves Way For New City Office Tower
In his strategic review unveiled earlier this year, new Landsec CEO Mark Allan made clear that he will be selling mature assets and ploughing the proceeds into new development. Now the site of a major new City of London development is starting to take shape.
On Friday, Landsec, the largest property owner in London, completed the sale of the 390K SF 1 and 2 New Ludgate office buildings in Midtown to Singapore’s Sun Venture for £552M.
On Monday, it announced the completion of 55 Old Broad Street in the City for £87M. The 100K SF, 10-storey office building “wraps around” the 158K SF, 15-storey Dashwood House that Landsec already owns.
“The development potential of this asset, combined with the potential for Dashwood, offers Landsec the opportunity to deliver a compelling, best-in-class destination over the medium term,” Head of Investment Nick de Mestre said. “This acquisition demonstrates our commitment to optimising our central London portfolio through the reinvestment of capital, as set out in our strategy.”
The company’s development pipeline was given a further boost last week when it received planning consent for Timber Square, a 370K SF office development in Southwark that aims to be net zero carbon.
Landsec will meet its sustainability targets by, among other measures, retaining a quarter of the existing building and using natural and recycled materials. Timber Square aims to be the largest commercial development in the UK to use cross-laminated timber, and it will use off-site prefabrication construction methods.
