This Week's Europe Deal Sheet

Over 75 retailers were drawn to enter London in 2016, and the prime streets in Mayfair and Chelsea have been a magnet for luxury brands, according to new research from CBRE.

Two-thirds of the new entrants were European, with 16 from the UK, 11 from France and nine from Italy. These included French designer Vanessa Seward, who chose 42 Ledbury Road in Notting Hill for her first UK store, and IKKS, one of France’s most well-known fashion retailers, opening its first UK standalone store at 10 South Molton St.

From the US, sportswear brand New Balance opened its first UK flagship with a 12.5k SF store on Oxford Street, while the Dominique Ansel Bakery (famed for creating the revolutionary cronut) opened its premier European store on Elizabeth Street in Belgravia. The bakery chain was one of six US brands among the 13 new coffee and restaurant retailers. It was joined by coffee brand Nespresso—headquartered in Switzerland—with its first London "Café Nespresso" unit offering both non-alcoholic coffee "mocktails" and food alongside coffee at its Cheapside site.

UK

Barings Real Estate Advisers appointed Lars Røgeberg director of asset management for the real estate debt team. Henry Marlow and VP John Bryant Gerber (shown above) relocated to London from Newport Beach, CA.

***

Mulberry is planning to launch a new London store on the site of Austin Reed’s former flagship on Regent Street. The 23.5k SF store at 100 Regent St was occupied by Austin Reed until that store went into administration and the lease was sold to Hermes earlier this year. Mulberry has a flagship on New Bond Street and other London storefronts in Covent Garden, Brompton Road, St. Christopher’s Place and both of London’s Westfield centres.

***

Billionaire casino tycoon Stanley Ho is in talks to buy Green Property Ventures’ 7-8 St. James Square, SW1 for around £213M. The building holds the record for the highest rent in the UK. The average rent in the Eric Parry-designed, 62k SF property is £125/SF.

***

Beauty brand Urban Decay launched a 1k SF boutique at Liverpool ONE. Over 20 new brands have signed on there in 2016, including Rolex, Victoria’s Secret and Smiggle.

***

Capital & Regional exchanged two long-term leases for its former BHS units at The Mall Blackburn and The Mall Walthamstow, bringing new occupiers Wilko and the Gym Group into the schemes. At The Mall Blackburn, Wilko signed a 10-year lease for the entire 25k SF ground floor. At The Mall Walthamstow, the Gym Group signed a 20-year lease on the 15k SF first floor. The opening of the new 24-hour gym is scheduled for mid-2017.

***

LondonMetric Property let its 357k SF development in Warrington. A major international retailer signed a 15-year lease within five weeks of completion of the Omega South Distribution Warehouse development. The agreement is expected to become unconditional in January 2017. DTRE and JLL advised LondonMetric. The distribution warehouse was developed in conjunction with Miller Developments.

***

Land Securities topped out its 65k SF leisure extension at White Rose Shopping Centre in Leeds. The extension will introduce six new restaurants, including Wagamama, TGI Friday’s, Chiquito and Pizza Hut, alongside an 11-screen, IMAX Cineworld cinema, an event space and a bespoke children’s play area. (Pictured: Land Securities portfolio director Rob Jewell, Labour Councillor for Middleton Park Ward Council  Cllr Kim Groves and Morgan Sindal senior project manager Peter Finegan.)

***

West One Loans lent £54M in November across residential and commercial properties. Central to this record month was a £5.6M bridging loan for Lambert Smith Hampton, a national commercial property consultancy, for a development with residential planning permission in south London.

***

GreenOak lent £32M to Halamar to support the refinancing and conversion of a mixed-use building at 37 – 38 Golden Square, Soho. GreenOak completed the transaction in conjunction with Signal Capital who provided the mezzanine tranche. The 34k SF building originally was comprised of multi-let offices on seven floors and ground-floor retail. Planning consent is now in place to convert it to 22 apartments and reconfigure the ground floor into a restaurant and two retail units.  Halamar, which is also developing its first significant Central London residential scheme on Chancery Lane, has commenced development at Golden Square and will complete the project in 2018.

***

Three major retailers took large units at Thorpe Park Leeds’ forthcoming Retail and Leisure Park. M&S secured a lease on a 13k SF store with a trading space of 9k SF. The retailer will relocate from nearby Cross Gates. The new store, subject to final planning permission, will be double the size with a 40-seater Café. M&S anchors the scheme with Next, which agreed to terms last April to take 18k SF.  Arcadia Group signed on for 10k SF for its out-of-town fashion store, Outfit. TK Maxx is also taking 10k SF. Construction will start on the 300k SF retail and leisure park in summer, with the scheme opening for trade in autumn 2018.

***

HPPUT purchased the freehold investment of Matthew Clark Distribution Warehouse, Apex South, Bedford from A2 Contractors for £5.75M. The 37k SF drinks distribution facility is let to the national drinks wholesaler Matthew Clark and is held on a 20-year lease with a break in year 15. The investment produces an annual income of £300k and the transaction reflects a yield of 4.895%. Helix Property Advisors represented HPPUT. ADS Real Estate Advisors advised on the acquisition. Knight Frank LLP represented A2 Contractors.

Denmark

Rockspring Property Investment Managers bought a student housing portfolio in Copenhagen for €30M from a local developer in an off-market transaction. Consisting of two assets, Tegholmsgade 36 and Søndre Fasanvej 90, the portfolio totals 85k SF, provides 175 modern en suite units and is fully occupied.

***

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets completed the acquisition of an office and retail building in central Copenhagen for €43M. The newly refurbished 34k SF office property is let to a public sector tenant on a long-termlease. A global clothing retailer occupies the ground floor. Originally built in 1910, Frederiksberggade 1 has recently been comprehensively refurbished.

Italy

Hines acquired an office property on Piazza Edison, Milan's prime office destination adjacent to Piazza Cordusio and the Milan's stock exchange, for €220M. The 236k SF building recently underwent a complete renovation and is fully leased to international tenants such as DLA Piper, London Stock Exchange, Invesco and All Funds. This transaction is the sixth acquisition by Hines in Italy since the beginning of 2016.

The Netherlands

Rockspring Property Investment Managers sold the final property from its Dutch light industrial portfolio, the 355k SF Trade Park Zuid Oost in southeast Amsterdam, to Urban Industrial. The transaction brings the total proceeds from the portfolio sale to €115M.

***

AEW acquired De Vyzel, a multi-let office building in Amsterdam City Centre, from Chalet Group for €14.5M. It is AEW's second acquisition in the Netherlands, following the purchase of a multi-tenanted 212k SF office building in the Sloterdijk district of Amsterdam in October. De Vyzel, which comprises 435k SF, is 88% occupied. AEW was advised by Spring Real Estate and Kennedy Van der Laan; Chalet Group was advised by Appelhoven Vastgoedadviseurs.

Finland

Citycon plans to redevelop the Iso Omena shopping centre in Espoo in the Helsinki area, aiming for completion in April 2017. The shopping centre is already 95% leased. Duudsonit Activity Park, an adventure park, signed a lease agreement in November for the second floor of Iso Omena, taking the place of the library and movie theatre, which are moving to new locations.

Germany

Patron Capital and its asset management partner Barings Real Estate Advisers sold their office building known as “connect” on Ridlerstrasse 55 iMunich to a British institutional fund manager for €40M, in an off-market transaction. The multi-tenant building was acquired in 2014 by Patron and Barings with 40% vacancy. They repositioned the 129k SF property, which comprises five storeys of office space as well as 147 car parking spaces in Munich’s sought-after Westend. CBRE advised Patron Capital and Barings; Savills, which also advised on the original acquisition by Patron and Barings, advised the buyer. GSK Stockmann + Kollegen acted as legal adviser to Patron and Barings.

Sweden

SSM Holding AB acquired a new project in Nacka. It will develop about 350 apartments in JV with LIBU Invest. Construction is expected to start in 2019 with occupancy in 2021.