Fiera Real Estate Lays Out £150M On Industrial Sites And Office Loans: 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.
Fiera Real Estate has acquired two UK industrial development sites in Wimbledon and Bury St Edmunds on behalf of its joint venture with a UK institution. The sites will be developed by Fiera and Wrenbridge, with a combined gross development value of more than £110M.
The JV’s first acquisition, made from Schroders, is a development site in the South Wimbledon business area, and plans for the development comprise four industrial units totalling 117K SF and featuring office space.
The second acquisition is a 6.4-acre site in Bury St Edmunds, with plans to deliver five industrial units ranging from 19K SF to 43K SF across a 156K SF Grade A mid-box logistics scheme. Both schemes will target BREEAM Excellent and A energy performance certificate ratings.
Separately, Fiera Real Estate Debt Strategies has provided a £41M senior debt facility to a joint venture between Signal and W.RE for the acquisition and refurbishment of 10 Lime Street, a 55K SF asset on the corner of Lime Street and Leadenhall Place, from global reinsurer Scor.
Fiera’s facility will partly finance the acquisition and refurbishment of the building, which was originally completed in 2009.
DEVELOPMENT
Tishman Speyer is set to proceed with a major refurbishment of its Holborn Circus property in Farringdon after a full recapitalisation of the property and an early termination of its lease with Sainsbury's, whose headquarters occupied the building until September.
Canadian pension fund PSP has bought out the ownership of Chinese state-backed investor Gingko Tree, and will now fund the refurbishment.
Initial works are expected to commence in the second half of 2026, and the refurbishment of Holborn Circus will redevelop the building into a sustainable, contemporary office with new internal atriums, an enhanced ground floor and basement, and a new roof terrace.
FINANCE
Apollo-managed funds have completed an approximately €900M senior secured financing of a pan-European logistics and industrial portfolio owned by a joint venture between an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management and Arrow Capital Partners.
The investment, split among three senior loan facilities, will primarily refinance existing debt for the Strategic Industrial Real Estate platform, a joint venture between Cerberus and Arrow.
The portfolio comprises 92 assets totalling more than 10.8M SF of urban and mid-box logistics and industrial space across the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland and Poland.
Gibson Dunn and Greenberg Traurig acted as legal counsel to Apollo. Eastdil advised Cerberus, and Linklaters acted as legal counsel to Cerberus.
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Housebuilder Hill Group has completed the full refinancing of its revolving credit facility, increasing total committed funding to £300M and extending the maturity to December 2030.
The revolving credit facility has been the group’s principal source of debt funding since 2015, and this third refinancing package is with Hill’s core banking partners HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander. The increased facility provides long-term funding to support delivery of the group’s five-year business plan up to 2030, which will double the business's size to £2.3B, the company said.
The new finance will fund long-term development projects, including the Marleigh Park development in Cambridge, Coventry City Centre South and the large-scale regeneration of the Teviot Estate in Tower Hamlets, London.
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Canada Life Asset Management has completed a £129M fixed-rate loan to real estate investment, development and management company Cortland.
The loan will be used to refinance Cortland’s existing debt facility secured against Cortland at Colliers Yard, a recently completed 50-storey build-to-rent property comprising 559 apartments in Salford.
The completion of the loan represents the first transaction between Canada Life Asset Management and Cortland.
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Investec Bank has provided Kennedy Wilson with an £11.3M loan to fund the acquisition and repositioning of Horatius Way, an industrial open storage site in Croydon, south London.
The 4.6-acre freehold site, formerly occupied by BT, comprises approximately 187K SF of open storage space and is in the Purley Way/Beddington industrial corridor.
The facility will support Kennedy Wilson’s plan to undertake capital works to upgrade the site, including improvements to surfacing, security, utilities and subdivision, the company said, with the repositioned scheme providing flexible, secure accommodation suitable for logistics, fleet, construction and urban distribution operators.
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Real estate lender Leumi UK has provided a £39.1M senior debt facility to a joint venture portfolio managed by Praxis Capital and Veld Capital to refinance a portfolio of six office assets across Greater London and the south-east.
Praxis and Veld Capital acquired the portfolio in 2022 and subsequently implemented a refurbishment programme, which improved the sustainability credentials of the assets, alongside an active leasing strategy, which has resulted in new lettings at improved rental levels and an enhanced income profile, the companies said.
The six properties are in commuter towns around the M25.
DEALS
Curation Capital has completed the acquisition of Alma Place, a 393-bed purpose-built student accommodation asset in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of its second joint venture with Patron Capital.
Completed in 2022, Alma Place is close to Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University, and the acquisition is the second in the partners’ second joint venture and marks their Belfast entry. The combined Curation Capital and Patron Capital joint ventures hold more than 1,800 beds across seven PBSA assets in Russell Group university locations.
LEASING
LaSalle Investment Management, acting on behalf of Malaysian investor Permodalan Nasional Berhad, has agreed two new significant pre-lettings at One Exchange Square at Broadgate Campus in the City.
Law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has agreed to take over 154K SF across the eighth through 12th floors. Pacific Life Re, the global reinsurance business of Pacific Life, will occupy 84K SF on the sixth and seventh floors.
Following the recently announced inaugural pre-let to FTI Consulting, One Exchange Square is 80% let ahead of practical completion, with a further 15% under offer.
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Bloom and TPG Angelo Gordon have completed a series of lettings across their 285K SF London portfolio for headline rents up to a record £47 per SF.
The nine transactions, agreed on lease terms ranging from five to 15 years, span Bloom’s estates in Fulham, Camberwell, Park Royal and Poplar with a mix of occupiers from the food production, logistics and creative industries.
A4 and Hammersmith, BOTB and Ripe Avocado have signed new leases on units of 7,200 SF and 3,600 SF, respectively. At Bloom Camberwell, Honest Burgers has leased 16,200 SF across two newly completed units for its central production kitchen. At Bloom Poplar, Instinct Spaces has leased 1,400 SF, Uniform Standard has taken 4,800 SF, Potato Art Studio has taken 1,300 SF, and Colt Technology Services has completed a lease regear on 11,400 SF, extending its occupation to 17 years.
PEOPLE
L&G has appointed Tim Morris and Philipp Westermann, co-managing partners of Proprium Capital Partners, as global co-heads of real assets.
The move follows its acquisition of a 75% stake in Proprium, a global real estate investor. Morris and Westermann will drive the expansion of infrastructure and real estate strategies across new markets, including Asia, Europe and the U.S.
In dual leadership roles, Morris will take primary responsibility for leading L&G’s global real assets proposition, while Westermann will lead the continued growth and alignment of Proprium Capital Partners.
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BTR developer-operator and single-family housing specialist Placefirst has announced that David Mawson will become executive chair in February, marking the first stage of his planned retirement.
Mawson has served as CEO of Placefirst for almost six years, and during his tenure, Placefirst has built a nationwide portfolio and is on track to deliver and operate 10,000 homes through direct development, joint ventures and forward-funded deals.
Day-to-day leadership will be managed by Chief Investment Officer Anna Hwang and Chief Financial Officer Lukman Sabir while the search for a new CEO is underway.
