A weekly compilation of Greater London’s biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email tim.clark@bisnow.com.
Valor Real Estate Partners has completed the acquisition of three urban logistics assets in London, in separate transactions, for £23M.
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All three properties are on estates where Valor has an existing footprint, extending its portfolio to 75 assets with 3.5M SF across London.
The sites include two units on a 0.5-acre site at Gemini Business Park in Beckton, purchased from Compagnie du Parc.
The latest acquisition follows the purchase in December last year of a substantial holding on the estate totalling 300K SF, including 14 units ranging from 13K SF to 115K SF as well as 1.64 acres of developable land. The estate’s occupiers currently include Hermes, FedEx and Royal Mail.
In Wandsworth, south west London, Valor has acquired a single-let 12K SF property on a 0.33-acre site from a private investor.
SALES
A joint venture between Frogmore and C1 Capital has purchased three hotels including the Hilton London Olympia for £130M, Northampton’s Park Inn by Radisson for £15M, and Stifford Hall near Thurrock for £7.2M.
The £152M outlay is the second major buying spree by the investment firms. The acquisitions see a total of 643 beds added to their portfolios, with Frogmore and its partners committing around £70M of equity to the projects.
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London-based Roebuck Asset Management has negotiated the sale of a Tesco Distribution centre in Avonmouth for £100M on behalf of Capstone Asset Management and a syndicate of Korean investors.
LEASES
RE Capital has secured a pre-let from cybersecurity firm WithSecure for its Goat Yard project in Southwark.
WithSecure has signed up to the first and fifth floors of the former Victorian warehouse building, which RE Capital acquired for £15M in May last year. The pre-let by the firm will snap up 10.6K SF of space. The full scheme, which is expected to complete this summer, has a total of 30.4K SF of space.
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Fashion retailer Anthropologie has signed up to 4.5K SF at Cain International’s mixed-use Islington Square scheme in north London. The U.S. clothing and homeware retailer is expected to open in early summer, its only European store opening so far in 2022.
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Patrizia has been given the green light by Camden Council to transform a former members club into office space in Covent Garden.
The office will become Patrizia’s new UK HQ in 2024, with the 35K SF space hosting up to 200 of the real estate firm’s employees.
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GPE has announced plans to increase its flexible office portfolio to 600K SF across London.
The firm, which offers workspaces to businesses requiring less than 10K SF currently has 250K SF across 11 London locations. The company recently acquired 7/15 Gresse Street in Fitzrovia for its fully managed offer.
FINANCE
Proptech firm IMMO has raised $75M in what it states is Europe’s largest Series B proptech funding round. The firm, which aims to help institutional investors deploy capital into the single-family rental market, said it will use the capital to accelerate its expansion across Europe and purchase 10,000 homes backed by $2.5B in commitments from leading institutional investors.
The round was led by Oak HC/FT, a U.S.-based venture and growth equity fund investing in healthcare and fintech, alongside Moore Speciality Credit and existing investors FinTech Collective and Talis Capital.
PERSONNEL
CBRE has hired Simon Begnor as director for its UK business development and client solutions team. Based in London, his role will include optimising network logistics through property. Begnor previously held roles at Jungheinrich UK and Proteus Software.
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