This Week's Europe Deal Sheet
A team led by the American light artist Leo Villareal won the Illuminated River International Design Competition, ending a seven-month search for a team to design permanent light installations in the Thames’ bridges.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan (here with Illuminated River Foundation chair Hannah Rothschild, Leo Villareal and Alex Lifschutz) announced the winner last night, saying that London continues to inspire creatives from around the globe.
The competition got submissions from 105 teams in 20 countries. The six shortlisted concepts went on show in a public exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall in November, seen by over 10,000 people.
UK
Orchard Street Investment Management bought Kingsway Retail Park in Derby for £57.3M. The seller was TH Real Estate. The 149k SF open-air scheme is fully let to 16 retailers, including Next, TJ Maxx and Marks & Spencer.
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Corporate Pension Fund sold The Works’ national distribution centre on Hams Hall Industrial Park, Birmingham, to Royal London for £22.32M. Carmoor was the developer of the speculative “Black Velvet” building that comprises 183k SF and is in the heart of the UK’s "Golden Triangle", offering easy access to the M1, M6 and M69. The warehouse is let to The Works on a new 20-year lease at a rent of £1.155M/year. Savills represented the seller. Knight Frank advised Royal London.
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Regus opened the doors to its second High Wycombe location, extending its network of flexible facilities in the area. The 20k SF site, which houses over 200 workstations, is in Beacon House on Stokenchurch Business Park.
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The Office Group let the commercial unit at 133 Whitechapel High St to the Department of Coffee & Social Affairs. The 1,167 SF site is the coffee brand’s 11th in the capital. The new coffee shop will trade seven days a week starting in mid-December due to the resurgence of the area.
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Rockspring Property Investment Managers let 22k SF at 1 Tanfield, Edinburgh, to Dutch technology company STMicroelectronics. The semiconductor solutions provider signed a five-year lease at a rent of £19.50/SF, with an option to extend for a further five years. Eric Young and Co and Ryden acted for Rockspring. JLL acted for STMicroeletronics.
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AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets submitted a planning application for the master plan and first building to Bristol City Council for its Assembly Bristol regeneration project. The new master plan includes three buildings, providing 300k SF of workspace.
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Verdion appointed CBRE to manage its €500M, pan-European logistics portfolio that includes 14 properties and warehouse assets totalling 5.4M SF throughout the UK, Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
The Netherlands
Redevco acquired a 60k SF retail unit from Investore for €28.5M. The former Donner building is in Rotterdam’s prime retail pitch and provides good opportunities to add significant value to the unit through active asset management. Redevco plans to redevelop the property. Redevco was supported by legal and technical advisers DLA Piper and Fortrus. Investore was advised by Houthoff Buruma.
Luxembourg
KanAm grundinvest Fonds sold the Atrium Business Park, one of four properties in its portfolio in Luxembourg. The business park boasts almost 582k SF of leaseable space and about 2,000 parking spaces.
Italy
Investire, on behalf of Fondo FIP – Fondo Immobili Pubblici, sold a historic building in the heart of Rome with 150k SF of office and retail space leased to the Agenzia del Demanio. Atlantica Properties acquired the building. Cushman & Wakefield advised Investire.
