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 mike.phillips@bisnow.com.
Greystar and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority have bought a £1B build-to-rent development scheme in Bermondsey, south London, from Grosvenor.
In December 2021 Greystar announced a new strategic partnership with ADIA of up to £2.2B to develop BTR housing in London and its surrounding commuter towns.
The scheme, at the former Peek Freans biscuit factory site, will feature 1,548 homes; play and public spaces including a large public roof terrace; and pedestrian walkways. It will also offer 150K SF of flexible employment space.
The Bermondsey site will incorporate new homes for a range of rents, a new secondary school, and employment, cultural and retail spaces interwoven into the neighbourhood. The development will incorporate historic buildings in the area into the plans.
PEOPLE
VIA Outlets has appointed Thierry Seang as investment director. Seang will be responsible for defining VIA Outlets’ inorganic growth strategy across Europe and executing forthcoming real estate transactions for the company.
Seang joins from private equity firm Maple Knoll Capital where he served as vice president of investments for six years. Prior to this, he was a senior analyst on JLL's capital markets team dealing with commercial real estate investment transactions and advising corporate entities, banks and government institutions.
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QuadReal Property has appointed Farhaz Miah as vice president of research and strategy. Miah, who will lead QuadReal’s research function across the UK and European markets, joins QuadReal’s 12-strong team of global research and strategy professionals.
Based in London, Miah will report directly to Executive Vice President Rosemary Feenan. He will be responsible for research and analysis into investment transactions and strategies, sector trends and unfolding geographies of opportunity in Europe, a region key to QuadReal where it plans to significantly grow its current c. $6B portfolio (£4B). Prior to joining QuadReal, Miah was head of research at Hines Europe, having previously worked at Deutsche Asset Management and Preqin.
SALES
A joint venture has acquired Titan Industrial Estate on Hogg Lane in Grays, Essex, for £50M to speculatively build 430K SF of urban logistics and industrial space.
Developer Chancerygate and real estate private equity firm Northwood Investors have purchased the 35-acre site, which is located 1 mile north of the town centre and 5 miles east of junction 30 of the M25.
The JV intends to develop 430K SF across 28 leasehold units, ranging in land size from 5K SF to 130K SF.
The site was sold to Chancerygate and Northwood Investors by chemical manufacturer and distributor Industrial Chemicals Group. The site currently houses an IGCL manufacturing facility, which is surplus to requirements and will be closed down over the next 12 months, then demolished for the new development.
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Asda has agreed to acquire 132 sites from The Co-operative Group in a transaction with a value of £600M, including £438M of cash and the assumption of £162M in lease liabilities. Asda said the deal is part of its growth strategy to move into the convenience market.
The purchase includes 129 established, high-quality sites with grocery retail stores of between 1.5K SF and 3K SF with attached petrol filling stations and three development sites. They are located nationwide and will create a new and distinct format for Asda in the convenience market.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
Transport for London is establishing a new independent property company to commence the development of 20,000 new homes on land owned by the transport body over the next 10 years. The property company was established as part of TfL’s funding deal with the government.
TfL is London’s third-biggest landowner, owning 5,500 acres in the capital valued at £1.7B. It currently has 1,650 homes in development.
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Present Made, the single-family rental developer owned by Apache Capital, has been appointed by the University of Cambridge to develop sustainable smart homes as part of its 150-hectare Eddington masterplan. Under plans submitted to Cambridge City Council, Present Made will develop and operate close to 370 rental homes — including the UK’s first family houses to be designed and built exclusively for rent. The scheme has an estimated value of £160M.
Eddington is the first site within Present Made’s initial £1.6B development pipeline, which will see more than 3,000 smart rental homes delivered across the south of England.
The company has a further three sites in the Oxford-Cambridge arc in addition to Eddington, with further announcements expected later this year.
LEASES
Cain International has agreed two new leases with independents at its mixed-use Islington Square development. Between them, The Bottle Cocktail Shop and Treat Medispa will take 1.4K SF in the north London scheme, meaning the retail and leisure space is now approaching 90% let.
A new concept from Homeboy, the award-winning brand behind cocktail bars in Islington and Battersea, The Bottle Cocktail Shop has taken a 714 SF unit, following the success of its online store and listings on Amazon.
Treat Medispa, a specialist skincare beauty salon clinic, has relocated to a larger 671 SF unit.
THIS AND THAT
Aberdeen’s Bon Accord shopping centre, bought for £185M a decade ago, is to be put up for sale after the companies that own it were put into administration.
Aberdeen Retail 1 Limited and Aberdeen Retail 2 Limited, the Guernsey-based owners and operators of Aberdeen's Bon Accord shopping centre, have been placed in administration.
James Fennessey, Blair Milne, Colin Haig and Matthew Richards, partners at Azets, have been appointed joint administrators of both companies and will be managing the administration to ensure the centre trades on a business as usual basis while working with agents to market the assets for onward sale.
The Bon Accord centre, which was built in 1990, extends to two main buildings on George Street and Union Street and includes 460K SF of retail space with 72 retail units over three floors and 1,400 car parking spaces in two owner-operated car parks to the north and south sides of the centre.
