This Week's Europe Deal Sheet

UK

Linkcity with its partners, Notting Hill Housing Trust and Hounslow Council,  will create a £410M development including new homes and a new civic building incorporating council offices, a library and a café for Hounslow Council. Notting Hill Housing will develop the residential element of the scheme, 919 homes including affordable housing. There will be a mixture of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments and houses across 10 buildings varying between three and nine storeys. Linkcity will develop the civic building. The new offices will support modern and flexible working practices, with shared offices for council, police and health services in the heart of Hounslow. 

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Helical sold three assets, netting £19.4M.

• Cabot Properties bought Calver Quay, Warrington, for £4.7M. The 70k SF logistics property is fully let to two tenants. CBRE acted for the buyer. 
• A private buyer snapped up Chart House, Islington, a 10k SF single let office building for £7.5M. Finn & Co acted for the buyer.  
• In addition, Helical has exchanged contracts on a single let, 21k SF office building in Cobham to a private purchaser for £7.15M. LSH acted on behalf of Helical, and Tudor Toone acted for the buyer.

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UBS Triton Property Fund has completed the acquisition of Perth Trading Estate in Slough from CBRE Global Investors for £19M, representing a yield of 5.1%. The multi-let estate comprises 132k SF of prime industrial space arranged across nine units and one two-storey detached office block. 

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Emperor International acquired Ampersand Building, a mixed-use building comprising retail spaces, office premises and leasehold apartments, at 111-125 Oxford St, 178 Wardour St and 15 Hollen St, London, for £260M. Ampersand Building is a freehold seven-storey mixed-use building with a total floor area of about 91k SF. The acquisition is expected to be completed on 14 June 2017.

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Vintage Capital acquired Reading Bridge House for about £35M. The 115k SF multi-let office building has an average weighted unexpired lease term of six years, with the largest tenant being Capita. The nine-storey building sits directly opposite Reading train station, which will soon serve as a Crossrail station. Savills acted for M&G, the seller, and Strutt & Parker acted for the buyer.

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RO Real Estate completed the acquisition of Victoria House, a multi-let office building at 49 Clarendon Road, Watford, Hertfordshire, for £5.8M. The 22k SF three-storey office building is home to Drop & Collect, the UK’s largest independent store-based parcel delivery and returns service; Hays Specialist Recruitment; and CH Robinson Worldwide (UK), a Fortune 500 provider of multimodal transportation services and third-party logistics. RO Real Estate was advised by Strutt & Parker; Cheshire West and Chester Council was advised by Capita.

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Tristan Capital Partners will invest £50M in the redevelopment of the former Derrys department store in the city centre of Plymouth. The investment will be in partnership with Thames Bank Property, which has been working on the project for more than three years. The Plymouth Cross project, which received full planning consent in August 2016, involves remodelling, extending and refurbishing the building to create 75k SF of retail/leisure space, a 500-bed student accommodation block and a hotel with 110 beds. Demolition work is to start immediately on part of the building, although the triple-sided retail/leisure frontage will be retained and refurbished.

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Burger fans are in luck. Westminster Council approved two burger shops. The application for a Five Guys burger restaurant in unit 1 and 2, on the ground floor of the Trocadero, 13 Coventry St, was approved, despite a recommendation for refusal. The planning committee also gave consent for the use of part of the ground floor, the first, second, third and fourth floors as restaurant and hot food takeaway in connection with the existing McDonald’s restaurant on the lower levels of 185-187 Oxford St. 

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Orchard Street Investment Management completed the acquisition of The Cornerhouse, Nottingham, from Land Securities PLC for £65M. The asset was acquired on behalf of St. James’s Place UK PLC. The only purpose-built leisure scheme in Nottingham, the 201k SF Cornerhouse is anchored by a 14-screen Cineworld and provides 11 restaurants, two bars, a nightclub and a casino. Key food and beverage tenants include Nandos, Wagamama and TGI Fridays whilst nightlife is provided by Revolution, the Slug and Lettuce and Genting Casinos, amongst others. Orchard Street was advised by Savills and Land Securities by JLL.

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A letting on the sixth floor of Frogmore’s newly refurbished Weston House on London’s High Holborn, WC1, has achieved a new office rental high for the location in the current cycle. Digital advertising firm Celtra has leased nearly 4k SF at a rent of £74.50/SF, and joins the existing occupiers, Mishcon de Reya, Peace|Crowell and a UK Government department. Only the fourth and fifth floors, about 8,600 SF apiece, remain available. Three-quarters of the available office space was let within six months of practical completion. Farebrother and Edward Charles & Partners are the letting agents for Weston House. Reesa acted for Celtra.

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BNP Paribas Real Estate appointed Richard Malle the global head of research. Malle will be in charge of coordinating and developing market analyses at the international level to support the clients of BNP Paribas Real Estate’s various business lines. 

GERMANY

M7 Real Estate acquired a portfolio of office and light industrial assets from Valad Europe for €63.5M. The portfolio comprises 10 properties in key German cities and offer a combined total floor area of about 1.1M SF including two assets that offer 409k SF of primarily office accommodation in central Düsseldorf. Located at Heltorfer Strasse 4-6 and 12-22, the two offices have a combined vacancy of 52%. The remaining eight assets are light industrial properties. Simmons & Simmons acted as the purchaser's legal advisor. Gleeds Deutschland carried out the technical due diligence and Ambiente the environmental due diligence. Colliers International organised the structured tendering process for the vendor, whilst Berwin Leighton Paisner provided legal consultancy services.

FRANCE

Redevco acquired a super prime retail asset in the heart of Paris’ luxury retail area, Rue de la Paix, from a fund managed by Savills Investment Management. The price of the transaction is not being disclosed. The property is occupied by Tiffany & Co and Glasshütte. The seller, the Savills IM European Retail Fund, was advised by Simmons & Simmons, Fidal, C&C Notaires and Cabinet MDA, whilst Gide, Ernst & Young, Allez et Associés and Elan advised the buyer.

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NAMI - AEW Europe acquired a portfolio of two hotels in France on behalf of SCPI Laffitte Pierre. The portfolio has been acquired from ANF Immobilier and comprises the Hotel Carlton, a M-Gallery by Sofitel hotel in Lyon, and the Aparthotel Adagio Marseille Vieux Port. The Carlton Lyon M-Gallery hotel is centrally located on the Place de la Republique, in the Presqu'Ile district of Lyon, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built in 1894, the historic 4-star hotel underwent a complete refurbishment in 2012-2013. It has 80 guest bedrooms, a restaurant “Le Centre by George Blanc” and a Cinq Mondes Spa.  NAMI - AEW Europe was advised by l’Etude Chevreux and Gowling WLG. The vendor, ANF Immobilier, was advised by Etude Pineau-Peschard and JLL Hotels & Hospitality.

SPAIN

CBRE Global Investors acquired 1 Plaza Colon Madrid from the owner occupier, Barclays Bank. The 42k SF building comprises a semi-basement, ground and three upper floors. The asset is at one of Madrid’s most prestigious business intersections, Paseo de la Castellana and Paseo de Recoletos.