Starwood Plots £275M West End Mixed-Use Sale

Starwood Capital has put the St Christopher’s Place mixed-use estate in London’s West End up for sale as it looks to cash in on a listed property trust it bought at a discount to net asset value.

The U.S. opportunity fund manager has appointed Eastdil Secured and Savills to market the collection of properties just off Oxford Street, CoStar News reported. 

The estate comprises 172 units split across 40 buildings, mainly along one pedestrianised street, which at the time of Starwood’s purchase was 98% leased.

The estate is 41% food and beverage units, 23% retail, 21% residential and 15% offices. Asif Aziz’s Criterion Capital was reported to be interested in buying St Christopher’s Place for more than £200M in summer 2024. 

There has been strong appetite for West End offices from buyers in recent months, but the sale will test the appetite for mixed-use schemes where the majority of income comes from shops and restaurants. 

Starwood acquired the portfolio by buying the company that owned it, the listed Balanced Commercial Property Trust, and its full 4M SF estate for £674M in September 2024. That price was 25% above the company’s average share price for the three months before it put itself up for sale but was a 9% discount to its NAV. 

BCPT launched a strategic review in April 2024 after the company’s shares traded at an average 36% discount to its NAV for the preceding year. It weighed whether to sell off assets piecemeal but ultimately sold the entire company to Starwood. The portfolio was valued at about £930M. 

A sale of St Christopher’s Place would recoup 40% of Starwood’s outlay on Balanced Commercial Property Trust in one deal. The asset was valued at about £230M when Starwood bought the company. 

The company’s overall portfolio was 35% industrial assets, 20% offices, 20% retail, 14% retail warehouses and 11% alternatives.