This Week's Europe Deal Sheet
UK
Moorfield and Glenbrook acquired a built-to-rent scheme adjacent to Manchester’s MediaCityUK for £50M. Work on the last undeveloped site overlooking Erie Basin in Salford Quays is set to start following the partners’ acquisition of the site from Peel and the granting of planning permission. The 220K SF, 16-storey build-to-rent development will create 270 new one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes, resident gardens, amenity space and car parking. The scheme is due to complete in summer 2019.
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CBRE GWS secured Channel 4’s Integrated Facilities Management contract for its offices in London, Manchester and Glasgow. CBRE GWS will provide a full range of services for Channel 4 from front of house and switchboard, mechanical and electrical, housekeeping, security, office and mailroom, event and audiovisual services.
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SEGRO completed a deal with existing customer VIRTUS Data Centres. VIRTUS is set to expand its presence on the Slough Trading Estate, with a brand-new facility that provides an additional 3,000 NTM (net technical metres) of IT space. Following the success of VIRTUS’ existing facility at the Slough Trading Estate, LONDON4, the co-location provider signed a 20-year lease on a new building, which will create an expandable secure connected campus. The newly built data centre — to be called LONDON3 — will link directly to the existing building and share facilities. LONDON3 is expected to be operational by summer 2018.
Quantum Pension Scheme sold Queensberry House in Brighton to a fund client of Knight Frank for £12.6M. Queensberry House is a refurbished retail and office property totalling 35,622 SF and is let to eight tenants, producing an annual income of circa £870K, over half of which is derived from Regus, which pays a mixture of guaranteed turnover and profit rent. In addition to Regus, other tenants include Tesco, Subway, Dyn and Lockton, with office rents averaging £24/SF. The seller was represented by BNP Paribas Real Estate and the purchaser by Knight Frank.
The same pension fund client of BNP Paribas Real Estate also bought Clarion House on Norreys Drive in Maidenhead from CBRE Global Investors. Four tenants occupy 24,860 SF of the 33,303 SF building. The final price was £7.3M. CBRE GI was advised by Hanover Green.
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GraVity will open its flagship trampoline park at Land Securities’ Bluewater development. The GraVity site will occupy a 25K SF custom-created leisure space within the lower hall of Bluewater’s redeveloped Plaza area. Work on the Plaza has already begun on-site, and GraVity is due to launch in time for Christmas.
In addition, Missguided is making its first move outside London at Bluewater, with the launch of a 16K SF statement store on the lower Rose Gallery, and The White Co. has just opened its new regional flagship on the lower Guildhall.
CBRE and Time Retail Partners acted for Bluewater. Savills represented GraVity.
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Knight Frank and DTRE signed two new office tenants at the Pearce Building, Maidenhead on behalf of landlord TH Real Estate. SquaredUp has taken the whole of the fourth floor, totalling 7,343 SF at a record rent of £38/SF. Ocean Partners has taken half of the building’s third floor, which totals 3,668 SF, at a rent of £37.75/SF.
The Pearce Building was a speculatively developed 50K SF Grade-A office across eight floors and is 65% let; tenants include BlackBerry and international law firm McAllister Olivarius. Knight Frank and DTRE represented TH Real Estate.
The Dial House Hotel, described as one of the finest buildings in Bourton-on-the-Water, changed hands following a deal brokered by Colliers International. The classic 15-bedroom Grade II Cotswolds hotel property has been snapped up by the Barons Eden Group. It was built in 1698 and was on the market at £1.95M for the freehold.
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Hammerson signed a £360M unsecured Revolving Credit Facility at an initial margin of 90 basis points with a syndicate of 14 international banks. The facility has a maturity of five years, which may be extended to a maximum of seven years.
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Alex Sharp joined CBRE Data Centre Solutions as head of project management consulting for the Europe, the Middle East and Africa region. Sharp is one of the leading data centre construction professionals in Europe, having been managing director of Mace Technology. He is a qualified electrical and electronic engineer and has built a significant number of complex data centres for some of the world’s leading companies, including Barclays, Santander, the London Stock Exchange and the Sanger Institute.
Griffen let its recently developed 130K SF warehouse to a luxury British sports car manufacturer at its 59-acre distribution park, WDP40, in Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. The tenant, which is an existing occupier in the estate, entered into a new and additional 15-year lease with no breaks, at a rent of £6/SF, with an initial 12-month rent-free period. WDP40 is 100% occupied, excluding the two new speculative units being marketed by Griffen. Existing tenants include Aston Martin Lagonda, DHL, Amethyst, CEVA Logistics, NFUM, Imperial, Jaguar Land Rover and Kathrein.
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Patron Capital acquired additional interests in CALA Group, an upmarket UK homebuilder, and Retirement Bridge Group, the home reversion equity release provider, from Electra Private Equity. Separately, via Retirement Bridge Group, Patron acquired Sovereign Reversions from Lone Star.
Electra invested in CALA Group and Retirement Bridge Group alongside Patron. In the case of CALA, it was a minority investor in Patron and Legal & General’s acquisition of the business from Lloyds Banking Group. In the case of Retirement Bridge Group, it was a 50/50 joint venture partner in the carve-out of the business from Grainger plc. Following this acquisition, Patron will own 100% of Retirement Bridge Group.
Sovereign Reversions holds approximately 700 UK home reversion equity release assets. Following the deal, Retirement Bridge Group will own more than 4,100 equity release assets with a combined vacant possession value of around £600M.
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REM confirmed the first letting at the recently redeveloped 48 Pall Mall. LXM Group agreed a 10-year lease for the 3,835 SF sixth floor at a rent of £115/SF. It will relocate its UK headquarters from Hobart Place, Belgravia. The new 32K SF office building has been completely redeveloped behind a partly restored historic façade. It provides nine floors of high specification office space that range from 2K SF to 4K SF with three roof terraces and cycle storage.
THE NETHERLANDS
Avignon Capital acquired the NH Amsterdam Zuid hotel for €45M. This is Avignon Capital’s second hotel acquisition and marks the firm’s first acquisition in the Dutch market. The 4-star hotel covers 1M SF and contains 213 guest rooms and 18 conference rooms. The property was constructed in 2002 and comprehensively refurbished as a hotel in 2008.
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AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets and ATP, Denmark’s largest pension fund, acquired a hotel development in Amsterdam from real estate developer COD, which is developing the project jointly with Being Development. The 650-room, 4-star hotel will include conference facilities, a wellness centre, a skybar and restaurant, a TV studio and a parking garage.
FINLAND
Barings Real Estate Advisers acquired the Entresse Shopping Centre in Espoo, Finland, from the CapMan Group for €30.4M as part of its pan-European value-add strategy. Currently 82% let, the centre offers a gross lettable area of 105K SF across 40 units, as well as a heated garage providing space for 300 cars.
GERMANY
PGIM Real Estate completed an off-market acquisition of the Magnet Portfolio, a Hamburg office portfolio. The seller was Rockspring Property Investment Managers on behalf of TransEuropean V Property Partnership Limited. The portfolio includes three office properties and a development site in the Hamburg Nord business park in Hamburg Langenhorn. The three buildings offer a total of 297K SF and were built between 1992 and 1999.
