This Week's 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.
M&G Real Estate has agreed on a third major letting at its 40 Leadenhall office development in the Square Mile with fintech company Acrisure taking circa 51K SF on a 20-year term. The Acrisure letting follows circa 300K SF of pre-lets last year.
It will be among the UK’s first buildings to achieve the NABERS certification that measures how a building is designed to operate and how it performs in use, M&G said.
M&G acquired the scheme in 2019 on behalf of the Prudential With Profits Fund, and this latest letting takes the scheme to 70% pre-let just under a year before its completion.
“A letting of Acrisure’s calibre in the heart of the Square Mile evidences the trend of high-performing businesses bringing employees back to the office environment to collaborate,” M&G Real Estate Global Head of Real Estate Tony Brown said in a statement. “1.2M SF of workspace was let during Q2 this year, a significant sign that the City, in particular, is back.”
FINANCE
Nuveen Real Estate has secured a further €40M in capital commitments for its pan-European diversified value-add strategy from a Canadian institutional investor.
The latest commitment will give the strategy in excess of €500M of dry powder following initial capital secured last year from Danish pension fund Sampension, Nuveen’s parent company, TIAA, and another Danish institutional investor, the company said.
Fundraising for the strategy will continue during 2023. The strategy will target opportunities across Europe and the UK, initially focusing on urban logistics, housing and alternatives. Earlier this year, Nuveen announced its first transaction with the acquisition of a self-storage portfolio in the UK. It comprises four assets totalling circa 240K SF.
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AEW has launched its first place-based impact investing strategy, the AEW UK Impact Fund.
UKIF is an open-ended fund seeded with a diversified £100M portfolio of UK assets consisting of specialist supported living, key worker accommodation and care homes together with community and residential-led town centre regeneration projects.
The launch of UKIF follows the receipt of approval by the Financial Conduct Authority and investors to transition the AEW Real Return Fund into this new strategy using RRF’s existing portfolio of impact assets.
DEALS
Brindleyplace in Birmingham has been acquired for £125M, with its new investors planning to decarbonise the buildings and develop new office and leisure space.
UK property investor Praxis, alongside private credit specialist investment firm Veld Capital, has purchased the 14.9-acre development from HSBC Alternative Investments.
Developed by Argent in the early 2000s, Brindleyplace tenants include Lloyds, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank, Michael Page, Zizzi, Pret A Manger and Piccolino. The estate is 90% occupied and offers ground-floor leisure space, a multistorey car park, a retail arcade, a four-star hotel, an art gallery and an aquarium.
“Our intention now is to invest significant capital to decarbonise the buildings and deliver some of the best office and leisure space in the UK,” Praxis Chief Operating Officer James Hewitt said in a statement.
Gerald Eve advised the purchaser. JLL and Acre Capital Real Estate advised the vendor.
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REIT Capital & Regional has completed the acquisition of The Gyle Shopping Centre in Edinburgh.
“The acquisition of The Gyle Shopping Centre, supported by the successful equity raise, reflects the confidence that investors have in our needs based non-discretionary community centre strategy, our management platform and portfolio,” Capital & Regional CEO Lawrence Hutchings said in a statement. “These grocery anchored centres are part of essential community infrastructure and continue to demonstrate the resilience and importance of physical stores to retailers.”
LETTINGS
Flexible workspace provider Orega has completed a management agreement to create flexible workspace at 70 Gracechurch Street, EC3. The new space will open in January 2024.
The 37K SF of flexible workspace will be refurbished to provide around 650 workstations on the fourth and seventh floors of the building, along with collaboration spaces and meeting room services.
Orega already has management agreements in the building and operates 50K SF of flex space on the second and third floors, while the new space will bring Orega to over 87K SF of flex space at Gracechurch Street.
The company offers flex space from six locations in London, where it operates over 220K SF out of its total UK portfolio of around 605K SF.
Allsop advised the occupier on the management agreement.
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Landsec has let the fourth floor, totalling 9,400 SF, of its net-zero office development The Forge in SE1 to carbon-capture firm Carbon Clean.
Carbon Clean provides carbon-capture solutions for industrial companies, and The Forge will become its new headquarters as the business scales up.
The Forge was opened in April, and it is the UK’s first commercial development to have been designed in line with the UK Green Building Council’s definition of a net-zero building, according to Landsec.
Adjacent to the Tate Modern, The Forge provides 140K SF of office space across two buildings, Bronze and Phosphor, which are positioned around an open public courtyard.
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Gym operator 24N has signed a deal to take 11K SF at Devonshire Square near Liverpool Street for a new flagship fitness concept.
24N City will be the fitness specialist’s second studio in London and its largest branch to date. The concept will be home to the brand’s widest choice of workout equipment, alongside luxury amenities and a wide programme of classes and personal training options, the company said.
Lucky Voice karaoke bar also launched a venue at DSQ earlier this year.
PLANNING
Developer Regal London has submitted plans for a purpose-built student accommodation scheme in the London borough of Brent on Wembley Greenaway, the site to the rear of 390-406 High Road in Wembley.
The proposed scheme will comprise 639 student beds, including 10% accessible rooms. The development is proposed to be car-free and will include new public realm with greenery, seating and play, and a rentable community studio space.
This is Regal London’s second PBSA development in the borough and its fifth in London following The Society, also on High Road in Wembley; Devonshire Place in Southwark, which is in planning; and the proposed new developments on Chalk Farm Road, Camden, and Orchard Wharf opposite the O2 Arena.
Subject to planning approvals, this would take Regal London’s PBSA portfolio to nearly 3,500 beds across the capital.
