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.
Canary Wharf Group has secured a £309M refinancing for the Newfoundland rented residential building now that construction is complete.
The building is fully occupied, and the five-year refinancing deal for Newfoundland, part of Canary's Vertus residential brand, was provided by Société Générale, Citi and Qatari National Bank.
Vertus’ other BTR developments at Canary Wharf include 10 George Street and 8 Water Street, which are also fully occupied. CWG now has more than 3,500 people living on the estate, with 2,200 built units and a further 1,650 under construction.
Savills Capital Advisors advised CWG on debt financing in the transaction.
“The growth of residential has proved to be a huge success for Canary Wharf Group, the level of interest, and speed of take-up for our residential products has been exceptional," Canary Wharf Group Chief Financial Officer Becky Worthington said.
FINANCE
Property lender Leumi UK has provided a £43.7M loan to a special-purpose vehicle of Fattal Hotel Group that will be used to help fund the acquisition and refurbishment of the Grand Brighton Hotel.
Cushman & Wakefield acted as valuer, while DLA Piper acted as Leumi UK’s legal counsel.
“We have big plans for the hotel and will now start planning the extensive renovation programme," Fattal Hotel Group’s Guy Vardi and Yaniv Amzaleg said. "The Grand Brighton hotel is the 18th hotel we acquired in the last 12 months together with our institutional investors in the Fattal European Partnership, with a transaction volume of more than €800M.”
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LaSalle Investment Management is to provide a fixed-rate £130M green loan facility to finance Greystar’s acquisition and development of a 770-bed student homes development in Wembley Park, North-West London.
The green loan will partially fund the construction of the scheme, which is scheduled to complete in the summer of 2025. The development will comprise 20 storeys with 12K SF of amenities, including a coworking space, external courtyards and gardens, a gym and bike storage.
Greystar recently announced that it was buying the site at Wembley Park from Lone Star's Quintain on behalf of its pan-European residential fund, Greystar Equity Partners Europe. It intends to operate the asset under the Canvas brand, complementing its adjacent 283-bed purpose-built student accommodation site in the Wembley Park area.
LEASING
Hospitality specialist Convene is to open a new 45K SF meetings and events venue in Sancroft, St Paul's, a redevelopment in Paternoster Square by Greycoat and Mitsui Fudosan.
The addition comes after Convene acquired etc.venues, which substantially grew its footprint across the UK. The new location will feature a 900-person plenary room, plus a tenant lounge and amenities.
The scheme will include 5K SF on the ground floor plus 40K SF floorplate on level one and will have seven meeting spaces, including one 900-person room for a total capacity of 1,200. It is expected to open for business in Q1 2024.
SALES
Abrdn has appointed Knight Frank to sell television shopping channel QVC's studios and headquarters on Chiswick Park in west London, seeking £85M, or a 5% net initial yield, CoStar reported.
Abrdn bought the 126K SF Building 8 from Schroders in 2013, and QVC has a 21-year let that runs until 2033.
The building is being marketed as a mission-critical television studio leased at a low rent for the park of £38 per SF. The sale price reflects a capital value of £675 per SF.
Last year QVC sold five buildings, including its U.S. HQ for $443M to Oak Street.
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Columbia Threadneedle has brought to market for sale Hyde Park Hayes, a four-building campus in west London, seeking £93.3M, representing an 8.94% net initial yield, CoStar reported.
Knight Frank has been appointed to market the campus, which totals 430K SF, used as offices, data centres and a multistorey car park in the town of Hayes.
Hyde Park Hayes is located within an area of the London Borough of Hillingdon that is not allocated or safeguarded for any specific use, and Columbia Threadneedle bought the park from Melford Capital Partners in 2015.
ACQUISITIONS
Cala Group has acquired timber frame construction specialist Taylor Lane Timber Frame as part of its growth plans in the south of England.
Cala’s carbon reduction strategy sets out its transition to timber frame across all the homes it builds in England, where possible. The investment in Taylor Lane will help Cala to increase the use of timber frame in England to circa 1,500 new homes per annum over the next five years, the company said.
In Scotland, Cala has been using timber frame construction for over 40 years, and around 80% of Cala’s homes there are built using this method.
RESIDENTIAL
Lincoln Property Co. and MGT Investment Management, have partnered with Native Residential to provide UK operational management support for its first-phase 598 built-to-rent homes at Station Hill, Reading.
The £850M, mixed-use regeneration project is adjacent to Reading’s mainline and Elizabeth Line station, and will provide a 2.5M SF district.
The first two BTR apartment buildings at Station Hill will be available this summer, will be known as Ebb&Flow and will include more than 2 acres of public realm at Station Hill, coworking spaces, resident club lounges, private dining rooms, pocket parks and bio-diverse roof terraces.
