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.
Avison Young UK and JLL have been jointly appointed by Z Hotels to sell the freehold interest in its Leicester Square boutique hotel. Structured as a sale and leaseback, offers have been invited at a guide price of £42M for the freehold interest, with a guaranteed 35-year leaseback to Z Hotels.
The hotel has 95 boutique bedrooms across four floors, and it has a basement restaurant. The proposed hotel lease is structured around a five-yearly reviewed rent, indexed to the consumer price index, and a separate ground-floor restaurant lease to Steak & Company.
Located at Garrick House, 3-5 Charing Cross Road, the site has undergone conversion from an office. The hotel is expected to be fully operational by June.
DEALS
Malaysian developer IJM Corporation has bought 25 Finsbury Circus in the Square Mile with plans for a major £150M overhaul and building extension.
In the week following the purchase, law firm Simmons & Simmons also agreed to lease 150K SF at the building.
The company is also close to finalising its £50M purchase of a 50% stake in contractor JRL Group and said that the refurbishment work would commence immediately, with completion expected within three years.
The planned building upgrade will include a sustainability-focused refurbishment and a two-floor extension, which will increase the building’s total footprint by 26%, from 300K SF to 378K SF of gross internal area.
***
Landsec has exchanged contracts for the sale of Lakeside Retail Park, Thurrock, for £114M. The asset is 97% let at a net rental income over the full year 2025 of £6.8M, an effective income yield of 6%. The sale is expected to complete by the end of April to purchaser GTAM Apex Lakeside Bidco. Farran Investments is a minority co-investor in and asset manager to the purchaser.
Landsec intends to recycle circa £800M of capital out of its residual retail/leisure park assets over the next three years, which will support its planned additional circa £1B investment in growing its major retail destinations platform.
***
Hub and Bridges Fund Management have acquired the 42 Southwark Bridge Road offices for £36M for residential conversion. The companies plan to transform the 100K SF office site into a living-led development.
***
Rosethorn and Barings have paid CLS £100M for a south London student accommodation scheme at Vauxhall. The sale of the Spring Mews student accommodation site will help repay loans on two other CLS properties in London.
The acquisition is part of Rosethorn's PBSA JV with Long Harbour, which is targeting existing assets and new developments as it expects to build a portfolio of up to 10,000 beds over the next five to seven years.
FUNDING
Newcore Capital, a specialist UK real estate investment manager, has achieved the first close for its £375M core-plus fund, the Newcore Social Infrastructure Income Fund.
The fund has secured three institutions as cornerstone investors: the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund, a local government pension scheme, and an insurance company client of Capricorn Private Investments, an outsourced investment office. The first close provides NSIIF with £100M of investment capacity to deploy.
The objective of the fund is to deliver sustainable long-term income and capital returns from a functional portfolio of UK real assets, enabling essential social infrastructure uses, such as education, childcare, clinical healthcare, transport and waste management, the company said. A circa £300M pipeline of potential acquisitions has been identified across the UK.
DEVELOPMENT
Build-to-rent specialist Moda Living has unveiled plans for its flagship London neighbourhood, Embassy Boulevard, located in Nine Elms close to the U.S. Embassy. It is Moda’s first London neighbourhood and will open for reservations this month, offering 467 studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, 30 of which are allocated for key workers at discounted market rents.
The development will also include 15K SF of amenities, including a golf simulator, karaoke room, private dining space, roof terraces, coworking areas, resident lounges and library, and a screening room.
***
Developer, owner and operator of industrial and logistics space Indurent has started construction on the sixth and final phase of Indurent Park Gloucester, its first speculative multilet industrial scheme since its launch in July 2024.
This latest phase will deliver circa 234K SF of midbox logistics space across 12 units ranging from 6K SF to 57K SF, and it will target BREEAM Very Good to Excellent and A+ energy performance certifications. As part of this phase, 38K SF of rooftop solar and 34 electric vehicle charging points will also be installed.
Scheduled for completion in December 2025, Indurent Park Gloucester will then comprise circa 943K SF of industrial and logistics space across 22 units.
LEASING
Barings and joint venture partner and development manager LBS Properties have completed a letting on the top two floors at Tide Bankside, totalling 19K SF.
Workplace Futures Group is relocating from Victoria to occupy the 10th and 11th floors at Tide on a 10-year term. WFG is the parent company of Ambit, Modus, Mytr, Two and Platfform, which together provide a range of design, refurbishment and fit-out services to the commercial office sector.
This deal follows the recent letting of the seventh floor at Tide to global travel and advisory company Flight Centre. In total, the seventh, 10th and 11th floors account for 32,700 SF of newly leased space.
PLANNING
Planning approval for a 620-home development has been granted by Wandsworth Borough Council. The site of the old Wandsworth gasworks will be transformed into four main plots, covering housing, workspace, hospitality and outdoor space. It follows a joint venture between living sector specialist Mitheridge and SGN Place.
The 5-acre site houses a semidismantled gas holder and an ageing gas governor. The new development will deliver 620 new homes, of which 40% will be designated as affordable housing, plus 45,700 SF of workspace and 9,000 square metres of parks.
Regeneration specialist Common Projects has coordinated the team on the planning application for the site.
