ActivumSG Launches £500M Student Platform: The 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.
ActivumSG, has launched a new purpose-built student accommodation platform targeting more than £500M in gross asset value, dedicated to repositioning existing PBSA stock in the UK.
ActivumSG has partnered with The Mansion Group to help operate and scale the platform, which is launching with a portfolio of seven assets totalling circa 972 beds, generating around 90% of its income from Russell Group universities located in Manchester, Edinburgh, Exeter and Cardiff.
The assets were secured through two transactions, and the venture is in the process of acquiring further properties, which the partners said would “significantly increase the size of the portfolio.”
All assets will be managed by TMGH’s operating brand, Mansion Student. As a value-add strategy, the platform will buy and upgrade standing assets.
DEALS
KKR and Inhabeo have acquired a portfolio of seven purpose-built student accommodation assets from Curlew Student Trust II, funded by clients of CBRE Investment Management, for approximately £230M.
The 2,179-bed portfolio is located across seven UK cities with a strong university presence, developed by Curlew Student Trust II between 2020 and 2022.
Inhabeo, KKR Real Estate’s living sector platform in Europe, will act as the asset manager for the portfolio.
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Newcore Capital has sold an industrial outdoor storage asset in Longcross, Surrey, for more than £22M on behalf of Newcore Strategic Situations IV, the fourth fund in the manager’s value-add investment series.
The 20-acre site was purchased in 2018 for a gross price of £6.4M, and Newcore undertook an £8.8M development project to create a 7-acre outdoor storage compound for Facilities by ADF, a specialist vehicle hire business for TV and film productions.
The entire site, which includes a 6-acre anaerobic digester leased to Severn Trent Green Power, has now been sold via two transactions for a total price of £22.1M.
NSS IV is set to achieve full liquidation by August 2026. Newcore is investing on behalf of its fifth value-add fund, which reached a final close at £190M in 2023.
CORPORATE
Funds managed by KKR are increasing their investment in Mirastar to continue building on the pan-European industrial and logistics platform, co-founded in 2019 by Ekaterina Avdonina and Anthony Butler.
Mirastar will continue to be led by Avdonina as CEO, while Butler will transition to become a nonexecutive director, the companies said.
Mirastar and KKR have acquired more than 70 properties and approximately €3B in assets and developments across six countries. KKR’s increased investment in Mirastar follows the firm’s purchase of a majority stake in 2020.
DEBT
Berlin Hyp and Delancey have partnered to refinance 20 Carlton House Terrace, a prime office scheme in London's St James's.
Delancey has participated in the £241M facility as junior lender through its dedicated credit strategy, with Berlin Hyp acting as senior lender. The funding is the second financing partnership between Delancey and the German bank, following their collaboration on the refinancing of 280 Bishopsgate.
The refinancing replaces the development facility following practical completion and letting of 20 Carlton House Terrace, which was recently redeveloped as a headquarters office building targeting BREEAM Excellent certification and WELL Platinum enablement.
The property comprises circa 147K SF of offices and an underground car park.
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Beltane Asset Management and TPG Angelo Gordon have secured a £175M development loan from BGO to deliver the mixed-use Notting Hill Place scheme.
The development will transform the 1.2-acre site, including a total of 170K SF of offices, ground-floor retail units and a social block including an NHS medical centre.
An initial planning application to redevelop the site was first submitted by the building’s former owner with a residential-led proposal 10 years ago. In 2022, Beltane and TPG Angelo Gordon acquired the estate with revised plans, approved by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. Completion is expected in summer 2027.
DEVELOPMENT
UK real estate fund manager Moorfield Group, on behalf of Moorfield Real Estate Fund V, has entered a joint venture with the Greater Manchester Pension Fund to develop, own and operate Podium, a 440-home build-to-rent scheme in Trafford, Manchester.
The investment by GMPF into Podium has been completed through the Greater Manchester Property Venture Fund, advised by CBRE.
Podium is a £120M gross development value scheme being delivered by developer Glenbrook and main contractor Domis Construction. The first phase is set to complete in the second quarter of 2026. It commenced in Q1 2024 as part of a forward-funding agreement between Glenbrook and Moorfield.
The 440 homes will be arranged across four buildings and a central podium, including apartments and townhouses. Ground- and podium-level amenities will include resident lounges, reception areas, coworking space, a gym and studio, a roof terrace, cycle storage and a 200-space car park.
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Demolition works have begun on the St Giles Quarter site in the West End, clearing a vacant Travelodge, NCP car park and derelict buildings to make way for a mixed-use building.
Designed by DSDHA and brought forward by Simten and BC Partners, the scheme is set to develop 220K SF, including office and retail floor space alongside residential accommodation.
The master plan is anchored by One Museum Street, a 19-storey office tower set to be the first new high-rise office building in the West End in more than 50 years, according to the developers. The scheme includes three additional blocks with retail space and 44 homes, as well as new public realm and a retail arcade linking Covent Garden and Bloomsbury.
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Tishman Speyer is to lead the transformation of the 550K SF campus at 123–151 Buckingham Palace Road, located at the junction of Belgravia and Victoria. The three-building complex will undergo a repositioning “designed to set a new benchmark for workplace and placemaking excellence in the West End,” the company said.
Already substantially redeveloped in 2023 with the addition of Sky Hub, a rooftop office extension, the campus features large floor plates and high-quality specification.
LEASING
Tech specialist WYE has appointed Savills to advise on its UK expansion plans, seeking up to 400 sites over the next five years, specifically targeting shopping centres in key regional locations.
WYE manufactures and supplies mobile phone and tech accessories and operates through a network of units ranging from kiosks to unit shops.
The expansion strategy includes both modular kiosks and full stores, plus a solar-powered external design specifically for the out-of-town retail market that will be rolled out over the next 12 months.
PEOPLE
Pan-European real estate credit advisory firm Art Capital has launched a back-leverage division, following the appointment of former JPMorgan Chase executive Alexander Storton as its fourth partner.
Storton, who started his new role in late August, brings more than 15 years of pan-European real estate credit experience to the role. At JPMorgan, he was executive director and head of EMEA and APAC CRE loan capital markets and EMEA CRE loan-on-loan.
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Walker & Dunlop’s new London-based capital markets team has hired Patrick Smith as a director of EMEA capital markets. With more than a decade of real estate finance experience, Smith will be responsible for commercial real estate debt advisory and back-leverage advisory throughout the UK and Europe.
Smith will report to Claudio Sgobba, senior managing director and head of EMEA capital markets for W&D’s London team. The hire bolsters the firm’s expansion into Europe earlier this year, which marked W&D’s first venture into international markets.
