This Week's London Deal Sheet
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 tim.clark@bisnow.com.
BlackRock Real Assets is investing up to £200M into the growing real estate asset class of battery storage facilities.
Up to a third of the American investment management giant's global renewable power fund will be allocated to build battery storage assets in the UK. It follows investor Catalyst Capital into the sector.
BlackRock has entered into a joint venture with KX Power to develop up to 2 gigawatt-hours of storage systems on behalf of the BlackRock Global Renewable Power III fund.
Both KXP and BlackRock have backed battery storage as a major part of the global renewable energy mix as the world transitions over to alternatives from fossil fuels.
Power generation from wind and solar can provide low-carbon alternatives to gas and oil. However, power generation is intermittent, which means battery storage is needed to help to power the electricity grid during lulls in power generation.
BlackRock’s initial commitment to the joint venture could help power more than 2 million homes annually, and remove 16 million tons of carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the projects.
SALES
RivingtonHark has finalised the purchase of a 790K SF shopping centre in Romford. The freehold of the 13-acre Liberty shopping centre has been purchased by funds strategically managed by RivingtonHark for £80M. The shopping centre lies close to the newly opened Crossrail route through London, and the asset in the London borough of Havering has “significant potential to improve and rejuvenate the town centre,” the company said.
RivingtonHark was supported by DLA, Time Retail Partners and Montagu Evans, which will take on the property management. RivingtonHark has been appointed as asset manager. CBRE and Shoosmiths represented the vendors.
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Chancerygate has bought two adjacent sites totalling 4.6 acres in Leatherhead, Surrey, to speculatively build 82.4K SF of industrial and warehousing space.
The sites located off Cleve Road are a mile from the town centre and a mile east of Junction 9 of the M25.
Chancerygate intends to develop 13 leasehold units ranging from 3K SF to 19K SF. Once complete, the scheme will have a gross development value of around £32M. Both sites comprise office and warehouse accommodation that will be demolished for the new development.
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Paris-based asset manager La Française has snapped up a prime London City office building for £28M from London & Oriental. The purchase of the 21K SF 111 Cannon Street represented a net initial yield of 4.5%.
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Boreal IM and Cadillac Fairview, the real estate arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, have announced a €250M acquisition of logistics assets in London and Rotterdam, their first deal as part of a €3B pan-European logistics JV.
The JV has acquired a four-warehouse estate in Park Royal, London, and six warehouses in the port of Rotterdam, comprising a total of 1.1M SF.
LEASES
Chinese tech firm Huawei is set to take up to 30K SF of office space at a new UK headquarters at Thames Valley Park. The firm had previously taken 140K SF in Reading.
PEOPLE MOVES
European real estate investment manager Mark has appointed a new head of investor relations.
Former Tishman Speyer Managing Director Michelle Doran has joined the firm and will manage fundraising as Mark looks to expand into new asset classes.
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Colin Throssell has joined NREP as its new chief financial officer. Taking up a partner position at the Nordic real estate investor, Throssell will oversee the business's international financial functions. He joins NREP from Nuveen, where he served as head of real estate for Europe.
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Savills has hired Hugo Raworth as part of an overhaul of its valuation arm. The agent has appointed Raworth, who joins from SitusAMC, as valuation director. Raworth has 25 years’ experience in the property industry, and during his role at SitusAMC he was head of European real estate valuation services.
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Schroders Capital has poached CBRE Executive Director Stephen Miles to be head of strategic capital partnerships for Europe. The newly created role will see Miles become responsible for strategic relationships with existing and new real estate clients across the continent.
