Ardent Brings £70M Royal Exchange To Market: 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.
U.S.-based The Ardent Cos. has instructed Savills and Knight Frank to market its long-leasehold interest in the Grade I-listed Royal Exchange with an asking price of around £70M.
The historic retail and leisure asset spans 51K SF across the lower-ground, ground-floor, mezzanine and terrace levels surrounding the covered courtyard. The sale comes less than four years after Ardent acquired the property from Oxford Properties for close to £50M in 2022.
The Royal Exchange is the City’s only dedicated luxury retail destination and is home to Hermès, Tiffany & Co., Boodles, Montblanc, Omega and Georg Jensen. The dining offer includes Fortnum's Bar & Restaurant and The Libertine. The scheme comprises 37 units and is currently 99% occupied.
The property generates more than £4.8M in annual rent and is being offered at a guide price reflecting a net initial yield of roughly 6%. The asset benefits from a weighted average unexpired lease term of 7.9 years and sits opposite Bank station.
FINANCE
Investec Bank has provided a £47M senior investment loan to YourTRIBE, a London-based purpose-built student accommodation operator and student living brand, to refinance its newly completed 226-bed PBSA scheme in Elephant & Castle.
The facility refinances the existing lender and supports continued investment across the growing YourTRIBE platform. The transaction marks Investec's second completed deal with YourTRIBE following its earlier £37M facility for the group's South Bermondsey PBSA scheme.
The asset is already operational, with students in occupation, and is located close to Elephant & Castle Underground Station.
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Pallas Capital has finalised an £8.4M bridge loan for a 60K SF, Grade A commercial office and integrated car park asset in Aberdeen, Scotland. The office building has been refurbished from a historic granite warehouse, and the 12-month loan was agreed at 70% loan to value.
It was originally acquired in 2015 and subsequently revamped through a £16.5M redevelopment. Because the property features stable, long-term leases with zero break clauses extending past the loan term, the facility was modelled on full market value rather than vacant possession.
LEASING
Mitsubishi Estate London and Stanhope have secured full occupancy at 8 Bishopsgate after international law firm King & Spalding confirmed that it will be expanding its space in the building by signing a 12-year lease for the final floor available.
On the highest office floor in the building at Level 47, the new space totals circa 8.5K SF, increasing King & Spalding’s total footprint to seven floors and almost 60K SF. King & Spalding signed on Levels 27-31 in 2023 and expanded into the 41st floor in 2025.
Spanning 550K SF, the 47-floor office tower is now fully occupied, with 10% of the building — representing 75K SF — dedicated to amenity space, including a 200-seat auditorium with associated meeting rooms, alongside a range of food and beverage offerings on the ground, first and 26th floors, plus The Lookout, a free public viewing gallery and private event space on the 50th floor.
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Kong is set to become the anchor pub tenant at British Land's Norton Folgate development in Shoreditch. The concept was created by Andrew Wong of the two-Michelin-starred A.Wong and Amar Radia, co-founder of Dishroom.
The pub in Norton Folgate opened its doors in 1792 and has traded as the Pewter Platter, The Poet, and the Water Poet, and this year will become the Kong Chinese Public House.
The site occupies just under 6K SF, with an 800 SF courtyard, on a new 20-year lease with British Land. Savills acted on behalf of the landlord, with Davis Coffer Lyons advising Kong.
DEVELOPMENT
Homes England, through its National Housing Bank, and The Hill Group have completed the acquisition of Cambridge East, which will support the delivery of more than 10,000 new homes.
The site, purchased from Marshall Group and approximately 700 acres, includes Cambridge City Airport and surrounding land. Marshall will relocate its operations by mid-2029.
The Cambridge Growth Co., a subsidiary of Homes England, will work with Hill to deliver the site, with more than 10,000 homes and at least 3M SF of commercial space. Plans also include supporting infrastructure, community facilities such as schools and healthcare provision, and public green space.
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Imperial College London and the Earls Court Development Co. have announced a Climate Innovation Partnership as part of WestTech London
WestTech London stakeholders include Hammersmith & Fulham Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, working to attract climate research and cleantech entrepreneurship.
Plans include the use of Earls Court’s 40-acre brownfield site as a live testbed for climate tech research and development, creating opportunities for academics, spinouts and startups to test and evidence their cleantech innovations, the partnership said.
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Faithdean has been appointed to deliver a 98K SF sustainable Holborn workspace at the Mercury, a 1950s building on Theobalds Road.
Originally designed by Stanley Gordon Jeeves, Orms Architects, in collaboration with Note Design Studio, planning permission was granted in late 2024 and Faithdean has now been appointed as the main contractor.
Once complete in late 2027, Mercury will provide 11 refurbished floors of flexible workspace, alongside street level activations including enhanced public realm and a public cafe on the south west corner.
PEOPLE
Kajima Properties Europe has appointed Ian Patillo as senior development manager in its London-based development team.
Patillo brings a decade of experience in real estate development, land acquisition and project delivery and joins from Landsec, where he was development manager. His recent work includes office-led developments such as Hill House and 55 Old Broad Street in the City of London.
