This Week's London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is 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 mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.
Sheffield Hallam University will open its first satellite campus outside of Sheffield in Brent Cross Town, the 180-acre, £8B new district in north London.
The university is another piece of Brent Cross Town’s 3M SF commercial district of academic organisations, major corporations, global innovators, startups and scale-ups, and will bring forward the seventh major building in the first phase of the Brent Cross Town development.
Sheffield Hallam University’s commitment to Brent Cross Town follows the recent announcement of a £600M partnership with Invesco Real Estate, acting on behalf of a U.S. separate account client, to deliver four buildings, totalling 800 sale and build-to-rent homes overlooking the recently opened Claremont Park. Provider of student accommodation Fusion Students is also underway with 662 private student rooms in a dedicated new building.
The completed Brent Cross Town development is set to become one of the largest net-zero developments in the UK, featuring 50 acres of parks and playing fields, 6,700 new homes and 3M SF of offices, along with retail, leisure and schools.
Related Argent and Barnet Council, the joint venture delivering Brent Cross Town, selected Sheffield Hallam to become the higher education partner at the development because of its strong emphasis on health and wellbeing, and its award-winning teaching, learning and research.
LEASES
Europa Capital, in a joint venture with Hobart Partners, has signed two new office lettings totalling 14K SF at Fetter Yard, a newly refurbished grade-A office building on Fetter Lane in London’s Midtown.
Eigen Technologies, the document intelligence platform that enables data extraction and analysis, has leased 10K SF and a London-based law firm has agreed to occupy 4K SF, both on a 10-year lease. These recent lettings increase the overall occupancy of the 101K SF building to 70%, with ongoing negotiations across remaining space.
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Landsec has announced that Sweaty Betty is expanding its presence across its portfolio of retail destinations. The British female activewear brand has signed for almost 6K SF of retail space over three deals.
Sweaty Betty launched its third UK outlet store at Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, in a deal which sees it take 1.7K SF.
In Oxford, Sweaty Betty relocated from its former city centre location into Westgate, upsizing into a 2K SF space on the lower ground floor.
Sweaty Betty’s newest central London location opened this autumn in Victoria. So far, the 2.25K SF store is performing above expectations, Landsec said.
SALES
A joint venture, including Nuveen, CBRE GIP and Danish pension funds AP1 and AP2, is selling a portfolio of three London office buildings for close to £900M, React News reported.
Newmark BH2 has been appointed to sell the 310K SF 70 St Mary Axe in the City for £400M, a 4.5% yield. RX London has been appointed to sell the 274K SF Belgrave House in Victoria for £300M, a 5.25% yield. Meanwhile, Savills has been appointed to sell 12-14 New Fetter Lane in Midtown for £170M, a 4.5% yield.
All of the properties are in the JV's pan-European Cityhold Office Partnership vehicle.
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St. Modwen, the logistics developer and manager owned by Blackstone, has acquired a 170K SF cross-docked distribution centre in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, for £50M.
The property is fully let to parcel delivery service Yodel, serving as one of its three national distribution hubs.
The asset is composed of distribution space, including 158 dock-level loading doors, 233 HGV parking bays, office accommodation and a staff welfare facility.
FINANCING
Aareal Bank has completed a £240M senior loan to refinance the £420M acquisition of a hotel portfolio for an opportunity fund advised by Tristan Capital Partners. Aareal Bank acted as sole arranger, facility and security agent for the financing.
Earlier this year, Tristan’s opportunistic fund, European Property Investors Special Opportunities 6, acquired a majority shareholding in Raag Hotels Ltd, which owns the boutique brand Point A.
Comprising 1,387 rooms across nine hotels in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow, the properties are managed and co-owned by Queensway, a family business specializing in European hospitality real estate and operations.
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KKR has set up a European real estate debt business and plans to provide $1B to $2B (£879M to £1.75B) of loans in the region next year.
The U.S. private equity firm is adding real estate debt to its existing opportunity fund business in Europe.
The division will be led by Ali Imraan, who joined in January from LaSalle Investment Management. KKR has also hired Saurav Chakraborti from Goldman Sachs, Francesco Cariati from Morgan Stanley and Antonio Guerra from Deutsche Bank.
It will provide any type of loan, including construction finance.
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Boutique property lender Leumi UK has provided specialist investor Northtree with a £12M loan to refinance a portfolio of logistics warehousing, light industrial and office assets.
The portfolio consists of five freehold assets, including two logistics warehouses, one light industrial business park, one self-storage facility and one office, all situated across the UK.
In keeping with its ESG-focused philosophy, Northtree has earmarked significant funds to help institutionalise the assets and improve their EPC credentials.
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Legal & General has taken an 18.75% stake in Gen H, previously called Generation Home, a startup fintech mortgage lender.
L&G will now have a seat on the company’s board alongside Peter Thiel’s Mithril Capital and Brent Hoberman’s Firstminute Capital.
Gen H said it has the fastest mortgage processing times in the industry, with its entirely digital mortgage application process taking on average 10 days less than those of traditional mortgage lenders.
CONSTRUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT
The Gateway Central and Gateway West buildings at the White City Place business campus in west London are now completed and currently being marketed to prospective tenants by Stanhope on behalf of Mitsui Fudosan, AIMCo and some of its clients.
Gateway Central is an 11-storey building comprising 280K SF. L’Oréal UK and Ireland have taken the five upper floors of the building for their new UK headquarters and are currently fitting out the new space. The new HQ will also feature a training academy, a flagship training hub that plans to upskill 10,000 hair professionals from across the country each year.
Gateway West is a four-storey building comprising 25K SF that can accommodate a standalone headquarters or multitenanted occupation.
