Great Portland Estates has exchanged contracts on the £42M sale of Challenger House — also known as The Corner Hotel — in Whitechapel and a plot of undeveloped land to Yoomata Aldgate Property.

Challenger House is a 74K SF hotel featuring circa 180 fully en suite guest rooms alongside a ground-floor restaurant and bar. The sale was marginally ahead of book value, GPE said.

The building adjoins GPE’s 75K SF The Hickman office building, with tenants including New Look, Runway East and Four Communications, which is being retained. Challenger House and The Hickman were jointly acquired in 2017 for £50M.

The sale is part of circa £350M of near-term disposals planned, with more than 50% already under offer, according to GPE. That includes a £250M sale in Fitzrovia.

Yoomata, a joint venture between Euragone Investment Management and Mata Capital, is planning to redevelop the site with a view to eventually operating it under the Yooma Urban Lodge brand, a hotel concept operated in Paris and Brussels by Euragone, which is looking to expand the concept in major European cities.

For the year ended 31 March, GPE highlighted the deployment of rights proceeds of £325M and four acquisitions totalling £162M, all in the West End, including a headquarters development opportunity at One Chapel Place, W1, for £56M.

GPE also reported “good progress” at seven on-site development and refurbishment schemes, with £357M of capital expenditures to come.

Earlier this month, GPE announced that it had prelet the entirety of the 62,500 SF office space at 30 Duke Street in St James’s, SW1, to global investment firm CD&R on a 15-year term without break.

The eight-storey office building will include 3,700 SF of roof terraces on the upper levels and has been designed by Make Architects. Practical completion is scheduled for summer 2026, with the building being delivered to a shell and floor specification.

“The sale of Challenger House allows us to crystallise our returns and reallocate capital from a non-core asset into our substantial development pipeline, which is rich with opportunities,” GPE Director of Investment Management Hugh Morgan said in a statement.