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.
Multiplex has been confirmed as the construction manager by Mitsui Fudosan and Stanhope for two residential blocks of apartments as part of the second phase of the redevelopment of Television Centre, with an end value of £500M.
Enabling works and site preparation will commence in Q3 for 345 luxury apartments in two separate plots designed by architectural practices dRMM and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris, following the masterplan established by lead architect AHMM. Main construction is due to commence in 2024.
The works will further open up the site to local residents, visitors and workers by the creation of a second entrance on Wood Lane and pedestrian connection through to Hammersmith Park via interlinking urban streets, the developers said.
DEVELOPMENT
Topping out has been completed on 142 new affordable homes for Peabody in two new buildings called Macfarlane Place at Television Centre, with delivery expected in early 2024.
Designed by Maccreanor Lavington Architects, the new buildings will replace the former BBC multistorey car park on Wood Lane, W12, opposite Westfield. 1 Wood Crescent has completed and is let to PVH, with Calvin Klein, Van Heusen and Tommy Hilfiger undertaking fit-out works.
FINANCE
Round Hill Capital has closed its European Residential Income Fund II with circa €440M of equity commitments and said it has “significant capital” left to deploy in selected markets.
The closing follows a final tranche of €9M raised from a French listed fund and an Asian public pension fund. They join nine existing institutional investors in the fund, consisting of a range of state pension funds, insurance companies, financial institutions and family offices.
Round Hill Capital said the fund is targeting core and core-plus returns in multifamily opportunities in strong locations that exhibit positive demographic trends, persisting supply-demand imbalances and strong transport links.
Round Hill Capital has 2,050 units under management following the acquisition of a 324-unit BTR development in Aarhus, Denmark, in February. In total, fund assets span five countries: Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Finland.
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Urban Splash UK Residential has secured a £20M debt facility with Barclays. The new revolving credit facility includes a further £20M accordion.
USR is ungeared, and the deal will allow it to accelerate its acquisition strategy to build an institutional-scale portfolio of design-led rental homes across the UK, the company said.
In the past year, USR expanded its portfolio by more than 30%, acquiring 80 new homes in Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge from developers and institutional landlords such as Places for People, Oval Real Estate and Javelin Block. USR has also acquired properties through its strategic partnership with developer Urban Splash.
Having raised £150M of equity from institutional and high net worth investors, the fund owns and manages 307 homes.
DEALS
Greystar Real Estate Partners has acquired a BTR site in Stratford, east London, with an existing capital partner for £20M, marking the latest phase of its growth strategy in the UK.
The Stratford Mill site is located in the heart of the Pudding Mill masterplan, part of the wider regeneration of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The site has existing planning consent, with the 2-acre site representing the second phase of a larger development. The first phase has been completed by UK-based developer Lifestory.
“Given we have invested £11B in the UK and have a further £2B to invest with a current operational portfolio and pipeline of 11K build-to-rent homes, we are well positioned to leverage the opportunities ahead in London — a key market in our global investment strategy,” Greystar Managing Director, UK Investment, Harry Downes said in a statement.
Greystar’s teams acted on the transaction, while Savills' London development land team acted for Lifestory.
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Savills Investment Management has completed the acquisition of two forward-funded single-family residential sites in the Midlands, both developed by Urban & Civic, for a total of approximately £50M. Both were off-market transactions.
These are the first acquisitions in Savills IM’s BTR portfolio following the acquisition of Pitmore, the UK development and BTR specialist, in August 2022, which signalled Savills IM’s plans to grow its UK residential and BTR platform.
The first site at Houlton, Rugby, Warwickshire, totals 149 homes and is part of a broader masterplan to deliver 5,950 new homes alongside four new schools.
The second site at Alconbury Weald in Cambridgeshire comprises 49 residential units as a mix of single-family and flats and is part of a broader scheme set to deliver 6,500 new homes alongside parks, play areas and over 200 acres of woodland and green space.
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The UK Storage Co. has been acquired by an investment syndicate. The company has a portfolio of 28 sites comprising both leasehold and freehold properties and 11,000 storage units. This translates to about 900K SF of built rentable space.
Founded in 2005, the business has expanded its geographic presence from the south-west with facilities spanning from Redruth to Leeds. It was equally owned by Keith Taylor and Cathy Taylor.
The investor syndicate was advised by Davidson Kempner Capital Management LP and Pithos Capital.
LEASING
Orchard Street Investment Management has fully let its Centro Trading Estate in Hemel Hempstead following a 16K SF letting signed with H.E.L Group, a global developer and manufacturer of laboratory tools for process optimisation, safety and scale-up.
H.E.L has agreed to a 15-year lease on the estate’s last vacant unit at a headline rent of £17 per SF, and it will use the space as its global headquarters and manufacturing hub.
This letting follows a refurbishment of the unit, delivered to improve the Energy Performance Certificates rating from a C to an A. Other features built in to increase the environmental and cost-efficiency of the units include an electric variable refrigerant flow system for heating and cooling, LED lighting and electric vehicle charging points to encourage low-carbon travel.
PEOPLE
CBRE has appointed Richard Howard as an executive director in its West End investor leasing team.
In his new role, Howard will be responsible for growing CBRE’s prime leasing instruction base and will form part of the London investor leasing senior leadership group.
He has joined from Cushman & Wakefield where he led London leasing for several years and most recently was managing partner for London and the south-east.
