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.
Atrium has become the latest occupier to lease office space at 8 Bishopsgate, developed by Stanhope and Mitsubishi Estate London.
Atrium has signed a 10-year lease for the entire 20th floor, comprising 14.5K SF of Grade A office space and will relocate from its current offices at the Lloyds building.
The 50-storey building, designed by WilkinsonEyre Architects, will provide 560K SF of office space with 75K SF of amenity space.
The building features amenities including a 200-seat auditorium, meeting rooms and executive suites, the Corner Café, the Upper Corner business lounge, the Twenty Six Kitchen, Bar & Terrace, and multiple private terraces.
The building also features The Lookout, a public viewing gallery and event space on the 50th floor.
Savills represented Atrium. Mitsubishi Estate London and Stanhope were represented by Newmark BH2 and Knight Frank.
ACQUISITIONS
LondonMetric and CT Property Trust have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended all-share offer that will see LondonMetric acquire the entire share capital of CTPT.
The terms of the acquisition value CTPT at £198.6M, which represents a premium of 33.2% to the three-month average price of its shares, but a discount of 6% to its last published net asset value.
The purchase will create a combined group with gross property assets of approximately £3.3B, comprising 71.5% distribution and industrial assets, and a combined property portfolio of 313 properties and total contracted rental income of £163.4M per year.
LEASING
Coworking specialist Huckletree is to open its eighth workspace, in Broadgate, Liverpool Street this September in a deal signed with British Land.
The move is part of Huckletree’s wider expansion plans to grow to 250K SF by the end of this year, and at Broadgate Huckletree will take four floors of the newly refurbished 199 Bishopsgate.
The workspace will provide 35K SF of private offices, two enterprise suites, meeting rooms, breakout areas, a town hall event space and communal kitchens.
Huckletree is also planning to open more hubs this year, including one in London’s south west area and the recently announced Huckletree Innovation Lab at Regent's University London, its first university hub. This follows the March opening of its Oxford Circus hub.
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Amazon has reportedly agreed a deal to take 70K SF from WeWork at Moore Place, which WeWork recently refurbished.
The deal includes enough space to accommodate around 1,000 staff and an option to take on more space in the building. Amazon’s current London footprint includes the High Holborn and Principal Place buildings.
DEVELOPMENT
Hotel brand art’otel, part of Radisson Hotel Group, is to launch three new sites in Zagreb, London Hoxton and Rome, opening in autumn 2023 and early 2024, respectively.
Following the launch of art’otel London Battersea Power Station, the brand will open its second London location in Hoxton. Designed by Squire & Partners, art’otel London Hoxton is based on a cylindrical form structure and will occupy a corner within the South Shoreditch Conservation Area.
The 27-floor property, scheduled to open in early 2024, will include 357 guest rooms including 60 suites, a restaurant and bar, an art gallery, events space, an auditorium and leisure facilities including an indoor swimming pool. British street artist D*Face was recently named as the Signature Artist for this hotel.
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Pan-European property investor Kajima has been granted planning permission by Westminster City Council for the partial refurbishment and extension of Orwell House, Fitzrovia.
Working with architect Gibson Thornley and sustainability specialist Max Fordham, Kajima plans to transform the 28.6K SF building into workspaces spanning 35.5K SF.
Approximately 70% of the existing floor space will be retained to reduce embodied carbon. At the same time, the new-build extension will employ circular economy principles by incorporating reclaimed steel where possible to support structural interventions and reuse materials on-site.
The Orwell House refurbishment is due to be completed in 2025.
FUNDING
Investment manager Downing is to fund a development in Peckham, London, which will see 91 residential units built including 59 for private sale and 32 for affordable housing and shared ownership.
The loan supports development at a site in a residential area of Peckham, immediately overlooking Peckham Rye Park and Common, and the properties have been designed to be energy-efficient and will include on-site air source heat pumps and solar PV capabilities.
It is the third deal Downing has completed with this client and includes funding for purchasing the site and demolition of existing residential apartment blocks that have been the subject of several applications for refurbishment and part demolition.
Downing typically lends between £1M and £25M at up to 90% loan-to-cost and 70% loan-to-gross-development value.
PEOPLE
Richard Divall, formerly Colliers head of cross border capital markets for EMEA, has joined London & Oxford Group. Divall has been appointed as head of cross border capital markets and will spearhead the company’s expansion into private equity and alternative asset management.
Divall has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate industry and at Colliers he was the business leader of a team of over 300 capital market advisers in the EMEA region for 10 years and was responsible for generating over €10B in investment volumes.
Prior to that, Divall was a partner at Strutt & Parker, where he advised major UK institutions and property companies on acquisitions and sales.
