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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. 

Broadgate REIT, a British Land and GIC joint venture, has formed a new joint venture with Abu Dhabi-based holding company Modon Holding for development of the 750K SF, £1.4B 2 Finsbury Avenue at Broadgate.

British Land and GIC will each retain 25% ownership in 2 Finsbury Avenue through their ownership of Broadgate REIT, while Modon will own a 50% stake in the asset, which marks Modon’s first entry into the UK real estate market.

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2 Finsbury Avenue is emerging behind British Land's existing developments.

British Land will remain the development and asset manager for the project, located at Broadgate and consisting of dual high-rise towers — the 36-storey East Tower and the 21-storey West Tower — plus a 12-storey podium which will link the towers via a 7K SF winter garden and include green space, leisure and publicly accessible areas.

Construction is already underway, with Sir Robert McAlpine as main contractor, and will be delivered in 2027. In April 2024, hedge fund firm Citadel signed a 261K SF prelet of workspace in the building with options to lease up to another 121K SF. The deal means the building is 33% prelet at a minimum, and circa 50% prelet if the option space is taken, setting a record rent for the City, according to the JV partners.

DEALS

Private equity real estate firm AshbyCapital has sold its retail park portfolio, consisting of three assets in Swansea, Leeds and Glasgow, to an unnamed U.S. investor for £220M.

The portfolio, put together through three separate acquisitions between 2015 and 2019, comprises the 345K SF Morfa Shopping Park next to Swansea’s Liberty Stadium, the 120K SF Westside Shopping Park in Guiseley northwest of Leeds and the 265K SF Abbotsinch Shopping Park in Paisley five miles southwest of Glasgow.

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SEGRO, as venture adviser to the SEGRO European Logistics Partnership joint venture, has exchanged on the purchase of a portfolio of six assets from Titanium Ruth Holdco, formerly known as Tritax EuroBox.

The transaction values the assets at €470M for a portfolio totalling 4M SF of fully leased logistics space. The assets are located in the hubs of Breda and Roosendaal in the Netherlands as well as in the Frankfurt corridor and the Rhine-Ruhr region in Germany. The assets currently generate approximately €24M of headline rent, resulting in a blended net initial yield of 5.0% and a net true equivalent yield of 5.4%.

The transaction is conditional on European Union antitrust clearance, which is expected in the first quarter of 2025.

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Private investment firm Veld Capital has completed the acquisition of Saltwater Place and Mary Parker House, two purpose-built student accommodation assets located in Plymouth, for £35M. The properties were acquired from Pickstock Group and Maple Grove Developments, which developed the assets, following two separate transactions.

The assets jointly offer 513 rooms. Saltwater Place is located next to the city centre in Plymouth, while Mary Parker House is located within a six-minute walk to the main university campus and an eight-minute walk to Plymouth train station.

“The high yielding nature of these investments in what has consistently proven to be a resilient asset class is something that we are actively looking to build upon as we pursue a number of other attractive opportunities in the UK PBSA market,” Veld Investment Director Jon Silvosa said in a statement.

FUNDING

ICG Real Estate, the real estate division of alternative asset manager ICG, has provided a £63M loan to a joint venture vehicle between Elysian Residences and Senior Living Investment Partners to fund a new retirement scheme. SLIP is the partnership between Pension Insurance Corporation, a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension schemes, and real estate lender and investor Octopus Real Estate.

This facility will fund the acquisition and development of a 100-unit luxury retirement community in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, and will include a mix of one, two and three-bedroom homes together with a café and bistro, gym, swimming pool, wellness and relaxation areas, a library and residents’ lounges. 

The loan facility follows capital invested in the same scheme by SLIP and Elysian and marks the first transaction between ICGRE and Octopus Real Estate.

LEASING

Technology specialist Arm has signed a lease for the entire Optic building at British Land’s Peterhouse Technology Park. Arm already occupies all six buildings at Peterhouse Technology Park, totalling 330K SF. 

The Optic, scheduled for completion in February 2025, provides office and lab-enabled space and is an all-electric building targeting BREEAM Excellent accreditation featuring 94 EV charging points, solar panels and a 2.5K SF roof terrace.

DEVELOPMENT

Glencar has completed the construction of four logistics and industrial units totalling 215K SF in a range of sizes for Valor Real Estate Partners at its Valor Park East Circular development situated in Beckton, London.

The new estate comprises four new Grade A speculatively developed warehouses ranging from 27K SF to 81K SF, EPC A and BREEAM Excellent rated.

PEOPLE

International capital adviser Jackson Square Partners has launched, seeking to advise private equity-sponsored businesses and corporates in the middle market as well as developers and operators of real estate and infrastructure projects.

Operating from offices in London and New York, Jackson Square will be led by two managing partners: Timothy Alexander, formerly with Sound Point Capital Management and UBS, and Aidan Brady, previously with Deutsche Bank UK.

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Clarion Partners Europe has appointed Harald Evers as head of asset management tasked with driving real estate performance across Clarion Partners Europe’s pan-European industrials portfolio. 

Evers previously held a number of senior roles at CBRE Investment Management, most recently leading the EMEA Logistics Property platform.