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.
Investec Realis has formed a joint venture with Kier Property to develop about £400M of urban logistics assets across England.
The joint venture is the third between the two parties and the first under the Realis structure. Under one of their previous joint ventures, Logistics City and Trade City, Investec and Kier Property completed 13 urban logistics developments across the UK.
The joint venture has secured its first site with the off-market acquisition of a 4.4-acre former office site in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, which will be redeveloped into a seven-unit Trade and Logistics City scheme, providing 87K SF of industrial space, targeting BREEAM Excellent certification.
Courtesy of Kier Property
Investec Realis has formed a develpoment JV with Keir for the industrial and logistics sector.
“The UK urban logistics sector continues to benefit from compelling structural tailwinds, namely an increase in onshoring and e-commerce penetration, whilst the erosion of industrial land in major UK cities is reducing supply and underpinning attractive rental growth,” Investec Head of Real Estate Equity Investments Yon Papageorgiou said in a statement.
Realis launched last year and Investec said that it will commit equity to every acquisition alongside investors.
DEALS
Real estate investor and asset manager Oberland has acquired the Arthouse Hotel in Glasgow in partnership with real estate investment platform RealVantage. The site will be restored and modernised.
"The property, with its striking architecture and exceptional features, offers significant value creation opportunities and is a perfect fit for our strategy of acquiring and managing high-quality heritage assets,” Oberland co-founder William Riordan said in a statement.
FUNDING
Neuberger Berman, a private, independent, employee-owned investment manager, has announced the final close of NB Real Estate Secondary Opportunities Fund II, the firm’s second commingled real estate private equity secondary fund.
RESOF II closed at $1.05B and is the successor to NB Real Estate Secondary Opportunities Fund LP, which had total investor commitments of $712M.
The fund will primarily seek to acquire interests in mature real estate funds from limited partners desiring liquidity as well as recapitalise seasoned real estate funds and investments alongside incumbent third-party managers. It will be focused on the U.S. and Europe.
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Canada Life Asset Management has completed an £18M five-year fixed-rate loan with SG Rocks to assist with the acquisition of York House, a multi-let office building located on Kingsway between Covent Garden and Holborn.
The completion of the loan represents the first transaction between Canada Life Asset Management and SG Rocks.
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Aviva Investors has made a £15M investment with Cambridge Innovation Capital, a venture capital firm which specialises in early-stage life sciences and deep tech companies in Cambridge.
The investment has been made by the Aviva Investors Venture & Growth Capital Long Term Asset Fund, which launched in January with a £150M commitment and aims to give pension funds and wealth markets better access to innovative growth companies, the company said.
The investment builds on Aviva Investors’ existing support for Cambridge’s life sciences and biotechnology sector, which includes Chesterford Research Park, an advanced laboratory and office space for biotechnology, pharmaceutical and technology R&D companies spread across 250 acres. Work is currently underway at the Park to deliver over 60K SF of additional laboratory and office space.
PLANNING
AXA IM Alts has submitted a planning application for a new £750M biodiverse office building at 63 St Mary Axe. The proposed development will comprise approximately 635K SF of space across 46 storeys, and the plans include a new park, a multifunction ground-level auditorium and other public amenities.
At 176-metres high, 63 St. Mary Axe will be the fifth flagship office development AXA IM Alts has advanced in the Square Mile since 2012, collectively totalling nearly 3M SF of commercial space. This portfolio includes the 650K SF Fifty Fenchurch Street development, which is currently under construction.
Fletcher Priest Architects has designed the building to have access to gardens and fresh air from every office floor, with over 100 new trees to provide natural shading.
LEASING
Devonshire Square’s redeveloped Building 7 in the City has announced four new tenants. Railpen, International Copyright Enterprise Services, Manpower UK and Bullhorn will take a combined five floors of the nine storey building, amounting to 43K SF of newly leased space.
“These deals, and the strong interest we’ve seen in Building 7 since its completion late last year, is evidence of the growing demand amongst occupiers for high quality, well-designed and sustainable offices in well-connected, well-managed and vibrant locations,” Nuveen Director Andy Booth, asset manager for Devonshire Square, said in a statement.
“Our approach to the £40M redevelopment and retrofit of Building 7 was to create a characterful, stylish fit-out, more akin to something you might see in Shoreditch than the City.”
PEOPLE
CBRE, has appointed Dean Harris to lead its loan servicing business for Europe. Harris will join CBRE from Trimont, where he has spent the last six years leading the firm’s EMEA advisory and servicing business. Prior to this, he was head of asset management at Situs.
Globally, CBRE manages more than $400B of commercial real estate debt, with more than €100B across Europe.
