This Week's London Deal Sheet
A weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email tim.clark@bisnow.com.
Life Science REIT, the real estate investment trust focused on UK life sciences properties, has paid £85M for 7-11 Herbrand Street close to University College Hospital in Bloomsbury.
The £85M price tag excludes acquisition costs. According to Life Science REIT the scheme represents a net initial yield of 4.42%, based on rents of £59.85 per SF. The 67K SF building is currently let to UK fintech company Thought Machine until October 2026.
The REIT has now deployed more than £262M of capital since its IPO, representing three-quarters of the total funds raised at the float.
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Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets has raised £474M from the disposal of all properties held in its Bishopsgate Property Fund.
In the second half of 2021, LGIM Real Assets sold 11 assets across all sectors in London and Brighton to individual purchasers for a combined sales value of £169.5M. The properties included 101 St Martin’s Lane in London, Selco in Walthamstow, 95-97 High Street in Clapham and I-Scene in Ilford. The joint venture initially acquired the 24-asset portfolio in 2014 for £360M and following the final disposal, the sale value for all properties in the portfolio was £474M.
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Hotel group Dalata has sold its 152-bed four-star Clayton Crown Hotel in London for £21M. The hotel is located in Cricklewood in North West London and was bought by Dalata in 2015. The hotel was sold to a firm controlled by AG Hotels Group.
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Private investment manager Signal Capital has completed the purchase of Thamesgate shopping centre in Gravesend for an undisclosed fee. The centre comes with 87K SF of retail space and is situated in the town’s pedestrianised high street.
This acquisition forms part of Signal Capital’s UK community retail investment strategy and is the eighth acquisition under this programme. Other centres acquired to date are Motherwell, Dunstable, Port Talbot, Redcar, Newmarket, Caerphilly and Taunton.
LEASES
Law firm HFW has picked 8 Bishopsgate as its new London HQ. Mitsubishi Estate London has leased 62K across three floors at the building, which has been developed by Stanhope.
HFW is currently based at Friary Court and is expected to move into its new office next year. The law firm has 20 offices globally in America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
FINANCE
Residential developer Lifestory has secured £90M from Cheyne Capital to help develop six sites across the UK.
Arranged by debt and equity advisory firm Moorhall Capital, the £90M of finance is split into two loans and will fund the construction of the sites through to completion.
The facilities cover six development sites totalling 315 homes in Lichfield, Lymington, West Byfleet, Bath, Cranleigh and Wooburn Green and represent a total gross development value of over £160M. The properties are focussed on later living and range from one- to three-bedroom homes.
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Hines European Property Partners has secured €800M of equity commitments from investors for its €1B diversified, open-ended core-plus fund.
The finance has been raised within the first three months of the fund opening and marks an accelerated programme of equity raising from new and existing investors in the U.S. and Europe.
Launched in early 2022, HEPP is led by Jorge Duarte, who joined Hines from Barings to take up the role of fund manager.
PEOPLE
Real estate consultancy P-Three has appointed John Strachan as a consultant. The former head of Cushman & Wakefield’s global retail division, Strachan will work alongside P-Three’s founders to expand the firm’s international network, geographical coverage and client base.
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Colliers has strengthened its retail offering in London with the appointment of Alistair Bews as a director in its retail lease advisory team. He joins from JLL where he was head of its Central London Retail lease advisory business for five years.
Bews has over 18 years of experience in providing lease restructuring advice, rent reviews, and lease renewals on prime retail and leisure properties across London.
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Avison Young has appointed Harriet De Freitas as a director for office leasing and development within its London markets team. The appointment aims to increase Avison Young’s presence in the London leasing market and lead the sector in the capital’s transactional space.
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Logistics platform Crossbay has appointed Amos Chia as its head of acquisitions. Chia was part of the founding team at pan-European logistics developer and investor Mirastar, which partnered with Goldman Sachs in 2019 and formed a joint venture with KKR in 2020.
At Crossbay, Chia will work closely with the firm’s head of logistics on acquisition, development and management of high-quality last-mile assets institutional investors.
