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.
Student housing provider iQ Student Accommodation, a Blackstone portfolio company, has bought two purpose-built student accommodation assets, Vega in London and The Mont in Edinburgh, for £370M from Downing Students.
Vega is an 841-bed property in Vauxhall that opened in 2021 and was built to a BREEAM Excellent standard. It has a gym, private dining area, sky lounge and roof terrace.
The Mont opened in September and comprises 324 beds. It provides students with amenities including a cinema room, private dining area, gym and residents lounge.
“This builds on recent acquisitions in Glasgow, Nottingham and Warwick, as iQ and Blackstone continue to invest in Russell Group markets where student growth is highest,” iQ Student Accommodation CEO Matt Merrick said.
DEALS
Brookfield and industrial real estate operator Copley Point Capital have acquired three distribution warehouses by Heathrow airport in a £54M deal.
Totalling 220K SF, the deal comprises three grade A units that serve as air cargo logistics hubs for three tenants: DHL, Circle Express and Air Menzies.
The three units possess bonded status, allowing goods to be pre-cleared for aircraft loading before arriving at the airport. They are part of the Polar Park estate, which includes one additional unit leased to the Metropolitan Police Authority.
These acquisitions follow the recapitalisation of three big-box distribution warehouses by Brookfield and Copley Point in March.
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Tristan Capital Partners’ latest opportunistic fund, European Property Investors Special Opportunities 6, and Queensway have completed the purchase of a 63.2K SF office property on St. Andrew Square in Edinburgh from Patrizia Hanover PUT.
The deal is the first add-on investment to the fund’s Point A Hotel platform, held in a joint venture with Queensway. The transaction, subject to planning, will expand the footprint of the platform to 12 locations across the UK and Ireland.
The latest acquisition in Edinburgh will see Queensway develop and deliver a Point A hotel on St. Andrew Square.
“Our stated ambition when we acquired the platform was to materially expand our hotel footprint in strategic locations and we are actively focused on delivering on this objective with substantial capital available to deploy,” Tristan Capital Partners Managing Director Kristian Smyth said in a statement. “We have identified several London boroughs which are of particular interest and are engaged in dialogue with agents and owners of existing hotels or appropriate office assets suited to hotel conversion.”
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LondonMetric Property has sold four offices and two long-income assets in separate transactions totalling £24.5M.
Four noncore assets have been sold from the recently acquired CT Property Trust portfolio for £15.3M, comprising three regional offices and a car showroom in Newbury. The buildings have a weighted average unexpired lease term of six years and their sales follow the disposal in October of three high-street retail assets from the CTPT portfolio.
LondonMetric has also sold an office investment in Worcester for £3.2M, which was acquired as part of the A&J Mucklow takeover in 2019 and is let for a further seven years.
In addition, and in response to an off-market approach, LondonMetric has sold a convenience food investment in Leicester for £6M. It was acquired in 2016 for £4.6M and is let to Aldi for a further 13 years (eight years to first break).
Following these disposals, LondonMetric has sold £154M of assets this financial year.
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Fidelity has purchased 99 Queen Victoria Street in central London as part of its new Real Estate Climate Impact Fund. Bought for an undisclosed figure from the investment arm of WeWork, Fidelity plans to refurbish the 88K SF property in line with net-zero carbon targets to create a new office building.
The 99 QVS site adjoins the redeveloped One Millennium Bridge, and the refurbishment will focus on improving energy efficiency, including the removal of gas equipment, installation of new air source heat pumps and a new building management system.
It is the first purchase in the Fidelity European Real Estate Climate Impact Fund.
CORPORATE
U.S. commercial real estate intelligence and analytics specialist Green Street has acquired retail and leisure analytics business Local Data Co. LDC is Green Street’s third acquisition since 2020.
“This acquisition enables us to provide more granular intelligence on one of the core sectors we cover to deliver deeper insights into the current and future state of the UK retail market,” Green Street CEO Jeffry Stuek Jr. said in a statement. “LDC’s focus on proprietary data, collection techniques, and rigorous quality control aligns well with Green Street’s unique differentiators and product mix.”
LDC monitors every consumer-facing UK business, combining a team of field researchers who audit the occupancy status at frequent intervals with an in-office research team.
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The Prideview Group and Cordage Group have formed a joint venture called Prideview Cordage.
Cordage offers a range of services within planning and architecture in the London area, while Prideview specialises in property acquisitions and disposals.
PEOPLE
Knight Frank Investment Management has appointed John Styles as chief investment officer following Matthew McDonald’s promotion to CEO.
Styles has been a member of the KFIM Board since the business launched in 2012 and is responsible for UK pension fund and insurance company client mandates.
During 25 years in property investment management, he has been fund manager for institutional investors including John Lewis Partnership Pension Fund, Lancashire County Pension Fund and London Pension Fund Authority.
