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.
Segro has sold Segro Park Victoria Road in Park Royal, west London, to Imperial College London for £115M.
Imperial will operate the site to provide commercial science innovation facilities to early-stage companies as part of the WestTech Corridor. The site has been identified for future mixed-use development by Imperial’s strategic partner, Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, and Ealing Council as part of the area’s regeneration plans.
Segro has owned and managed the 10-acre urban warehouse estate since the acquisition of Brixton in 2009. However, the age and layout of the estate has meant that the recent strategy has been to secure vacant possession to facilitate redevelopment. Consequently, the estate is 64% occupied and generates rental income of £3.2M.
“Imperial College London is investing in its ambitious vision for a new globally competitive deep tech innovation ecosystem in West London,” Imperial President Hugh Brady said in a statement. “The Imperial WestTech Corridor will act as a powerful engine for investment, inclusive economic growth, and job creation at a local, regional, and national level supported by the Government's emerging Industrial Strategy.”
DEALS
Citra Living, part of Lloyds Banking Group, has acquired 821 UK rental homes from Gatehouse Living Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gatehouse Bank.
The homes are spread across nine schemes in Greater Manchester, Merseyside and the West Midlands. The deal means that Citra’s rental portfolio has grown to more than 5,000 homes across the UK, of which more than 3,000 have been delivered and are occupied.
Completed in 2018, the acquired homes include a mix of two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, as well as 72 low-rise apartments. Occupancy of the homes stands at 99%.
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Country Court has sold a portfolio of three care homes for circa £50M in a deal advised by Knight Frank.
The transaction includes the sale and leaseback of Hermitage House, a luxury care home in Kettering Thrapston, Northamptonshire, which offers residential and specialist dementia care. The care home opened in March 2023, and Country Court has signed a 35-year lease to operate the asset.
The transaction also includes the sale of two care home developments with planning consent in place. In a forward funding structure, an undisclosed fund has acquired a care home in Chippenham and a care home in Lincoln, with Country Court retained as the long-term operator.
Country Court opened its first care home in Holbeach, Lincolnshire, and now operates 47 homes across the UK.
FUNDING
Criterion Capital has secured a £25M investment facility from Cynergy Bank, with the funding to be focused on the expansion of its Zedwell hotel brand.
Zedwell hotels are in three central London locations, with new schemes set to open in York, Manchester and Edinburgh. With 13 new sites in development, Zedwell is looking to expand its portfolio to 8,000 rooms by 2027.
“This £25M equity release is pivotal in accelerating the Zedwell brand's UK-wide expansion,” Criterion Capital Director Omar Aziz said in a statement. “We are looking forward to turning prime sites in cities across the UK into vibrant and thriving hospitality assets.”
LEASING
Clearbell Property Partners III, a fund managed by Clearbell Capital, has entered a new lease agreement with film company Curzon for prime office space in the Kodak Building in Covent Garden.
Curzon has moved to the seventh floor of The Kodak, occupying 6,900 SF of a building originally constructed in 1911 for the photography brand Kodak.
The Grade II-listed building underwent an extensive redevelopment and repositioning by Clearbell. It now comprises 70K SF of Grade A office accommodation set over eight stories.
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Hollis has agreed to relocate its two London offices to a single City headquarters at 138 Cheapside.
The new lease with Endurance Land, a member of Nan Fung Group, will see Hollis take 9,900 SF of Grade A office space at the building, which Nan Fung acquired in 2016. In total, it is an 80K SF office building with retail units next to the St Paul’s Cathedral.
A refurbishment programme to reposition the building was completed in September 2019. It involved a new roof terrace, a centralised mechanical and electrical plant, and enhancements in reception and other communal areas.
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Life Science REIT, a real estate investment trust focused on UK life sciences properties, has completed a new lease with Infleqtion, a quantum technology business, for 7,500 SF of fully fitted space at the Innovation Quarter at Oxford Technology Park.
Infleqtion is the third quantum technology business to take space at OTP, and the letting follows an agreement for lease announced in March.
OTP was acquired by Life Science REIT in May 2022. It comprises six completed buildings totalling nearly 238K SF alongside 270K SF of development space. Existing occupiers include The Native Antigen Company, Oxford Gene Technology and Oxford Ionics.
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LondonMetric Property said in an update on occupational transactions that it had added £8.5M per annum in rents in the financial year to date. LondonMetric has settled 139 rent reviews since 31 March, delivering £5.7M of additional rent, representing a 17% uplift on a five-year equivalent basis, with urban logistics reviews delivering an uplift of 25%, the company said.
The company has also signed 27 lettings over the same period, adding £2.8M of additional rent.
PEOPLE
Housebuilder The Hill Group has appointed Tom Starkey as its new build-to-rent and commercial asset manager, the company’s first role dedicated to BTR. In this newly created position, Starkey will help shape Hill’s BTR strategy and oversee the company’s expansion into the sector, Hill Group said.
Forming part of Hill’s five-year business plan and growth strategy, the housebuilder is exploring new opportunities to work with potential investors and partners on forward funding, forward commit and joint venture initiatives.
