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.
Developer Vabel has completed the purchase of its second site on Queensway, west London, opposite The Whiteley, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition of 114-150 Queensway and 97-113 Inverness Terrace from Mark follows Vabel’s purchase of its first Queensway site from Bourne Capital in spring 2023.
The latest acquisition already has a consent in place for 87K SF of offices, 30K SF of residential and 23K SF of retail space, but Vabel said it will look to bring forward new proposals for a mixed-use building.
The site is situated opposite The Whiteley and occupies the north end of Queensway between Bishop’s Bridge Road and Porchester Gardens and will form part of the £3B regeneration of Queensway.
Founded by Daniel Baliti and Jeremy Spencer, Vabel has delivered around £300M in residential-led real estate over 15 years in locations including Marylebone, Mayfair, Kentish Town and Kensal Rise.
FINANCE
Hines has secured more than €1B of equity commitments for its Hines European Property Partners fund after what it described as an acceleration of commitments from existing and new partners over the last quarter.
HEPP is Hines’ European core-plus fund and focuses on stabilised assets in key European markets with growth potential, targeting the industrial, living, retail and office sectors, in addition to emerging sectors such as data centres and senior living.
Recent acquisitions for HEPP include the forward-funding of the largest multifamily residential development for rent in Newcastle, a 260-bed purpose-built student development in Bristol, Hines’ first asset in Sweden, a logistics warehouse, and a solar-powered logistics warehouse in Italy.
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Fattal Hotel Group has secured a £525M senior loan from Cheyne Capital to support the refinancing of four London hotels acquired by Fattal in 2019.
These are operated under the Leonardo Hotels brand, the European arm of the Fattal Hotel Group, and include the NYX Hotel London Holborn, Leonardo Royal Hotel London City, Leonardo Royal Hotel London Tower Bridge and Leonardo Royal Hotel London St Paul’s, totalling over 1,300 bedrooms.
Migdal Insurance Company also participated in the refinancing.
“This refinancing is one of the largest so far in 2024 and demonstrates our ability to execute high quality transactions of size,” Cheyne Real Estate Head of UK Investment Arron Taggart said in a statement. “The London hotel market is proving to be a compelling investment as it continues to recover post Covid-19, and we will continue to seek out similar best-in-class investments such as this.”
DEALS
Student accommodation specialist Unite Students has acquired a development on Borough High Street in Southwark where it will build a £200M, 444-bed property open for the 2027-2028 academic year.
Kings Place, near Borough Underground Station, will include 308 studio flats and 136 en suite rooms in cluster flats for students, eight worker residential apartments and 18K SF of workspace accommodation, plus a cinema room, gym, pavilion and terraces.
Unite Students’ London development pipeline now totals 3,200 beds for delivery over the next five years with a total planned investment of more than £800M. The pipeline includes 716 new beds and a new home for sixth form school the London Academy of Excellence at its Hawthorne House property, due to open for the 2026-2027 academic year.
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Master developer Urban&Civic has acquired housing association London & Quadrant Housing Trust’s business L&Q Estates. The acquisition will see Urban&Civic expand its portfolio into Milton Keynes, while Catesby Estates, the land-promoting subsidiary of Urban&Civic, will expand into new areas by progressing those sites made available to housebuilders once consent is secured.
L&Q owns and manages more than 105,000 homes. L&Q purchased L&Q Estates, previously Gallagher Estates, in 2017 to unlock land for housing development on a regional basis across the Midlands and south-east. However, L&Q’s corporate strategy is now focused on prioritising investment in existing homes and services and targeting growth in London and Greater Manchester, the company said.
LEASING
Global womenswear retailer House of CB has leased 45K SF at 225 Oxford Street to open a flagship store on Oxford Circus. The brand already operates standalone stores in Los Angeles and Atlanta.
Founded in 2010, House of CB was originally a pure-play online retailer before opening physical stores internationally. It opened a 10K SF pop-up store at 225 Oxford Street in 2023, trading from the first and ground floors.
CORPORATE
Macquarie Asset Management is set to spin off the majority of its existing activities in core and core-plus real estate to enable the creation of Manova Partners, an independent real estate investment manager with €11.4B of assets under management.
The new business will largely comprise the real estate activities Macquarie Asset Management acquired through its 2018 purchase of GLL Real Estate Partners.
The company said that following the expansion of these activities as part of Macquarie Asset Management, a strategic review concluded that their next phase of growth would be best served by operating independently as a boutique real estate investment manager. Manova Partners will manage and source investments in properties and portfolios across the office, industrial, residential and retail sectors.
