This Week's Europe Deal Sheet

UK

Schroder UK Real Estate Fund secured three major lettings at King’s Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith.

• New Look signed a 20-year lease for over 10K SF.
• SREF will bring Frame Gym to King’s Mall for a 15-year lease.
• Italian cosmetics brand KIKO Milano signed a lease for 10 years.

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LondonMetric Property acquired two last-mile distribution warehouses in Leeds for £12M. One warehouse is 100K SF on the Leeds ring road, let to Vision Alert Automotives on a new 15-year lease. The occupier is consolidating its operations, and the new unit will serve as its UK headquarters. The other warehouse is 49K SF near Leeds city centre and is let to Siemens with three years remaining of the 10-year lease.

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Inland Homes secured planning permission to develop over 1,200 new homes in two locations. Inland Homes will build 239 residential units and 16K SF of commercial space at its Lily’s Walk site in High Wycombe, and 992 residential units in Buckinghamshire and Hampshire. 

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Orchard Street Investment Management bought Christchurch Retail Park, Dorset, from LondonMetric Property Plc for €39.7M. The acquisition, which has been made on behalf of St. James’s Place Property Unit Trust and represents a yield of 5.65%, is due to complete by 31 March 2017. The largest retail park in Christchurch, approximately five miles from Bournemouth on England’s south coast, the asset is 100% let and comprises approximately 1.9M SF across nine units. 

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Ærium has signed several lettings at its seven-storey flagship West End office asset, 24 Saville Row, taking the building to full occupancy:

• Gravis Capital Partners has taken the fourth floor comprising 4,498 SF. 
• LMR Management Services, another investment advisory firm, has taken 4,543 SF on the third floor. 
• Korean Air Lines Co. has taken the first floor comprising 1,707 SF.

All leases have been agreed for 10 years with headline rents between £105 and £115/SF.

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CBRE appointed proptech expert Alex Bailes as head of product engineering. 

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Colliers International promoted Davoud Amel-Azizpour to chief financial officer, EMEA, based in its London office. Amel-Azizpour joined Colliers in 2013 from DTZ, where he was UK financial controller.  

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Thor Equities appointed Fess Wofse as chief financial officer.

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AshbyCapital promoted Charles Etienne-Lawrence to investment director and Lucy Arthur to head of asset marketing. 

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An £8M refurbishment programme is underway at Lendlease and Invesco’s Queensgate Shopping Centre. The changes will include new lighting, doors, and redesigned ceilings and internal finishes, to create a bright, more modern look. Subject to planning approval, The Cumbergate entrance, adjacent to Carluccio’s, will also be upgraded to create an improved welcome hall.

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Willmott Dixon was named preferred bidder for the £46M landmark project to create a combined school and leisure campus in Ponteland, north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The existing Ponteland Leisure Centre will be demolished and replaced by a facility integrated with a secondary and primary school providing 2,040 places. The adjoining leisure facility will provide a 25-metre six-lane swimming pool, a learner pool and children’s wet play area, a clip and climb and soft play area, a fitness suite, studios, a sports hall, badminton courts, outdoor sports fields, two full-size 3G pitches and a library.

FRANCE

INTERNOS disposed of four assets from two funds for a total of €50M:

• 194K SF office building in Cergy to a private investor.
• 236K SF logistics building in Bouc Bel Air (Marseilles), to a developer. 
• 161K SF logistics building in Louviers (Rouen), to an owner-occupier. 
• 161K SF office building in Mondeville (Caen) from the Celsius fund to a private investor. Ahead of the sale, INTERNOS secured a long-term lease with Carrefour on the whole building. 

GERMANY

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets acquired the Abba Hotel in Berlin. The transaction has been structured as a sale-leaseback agreement with Abba Hotels, a Spanish owner, operator and developer of hotels, which has committed to continue running the asset on a new long-term lease. The price was not disclosed.