Author Archives: glasshouse

A buyer has emerged for the flagship Bond Street store of Italian fashion house Max Mara, Green Street News can reveal.

UK real estate investment manager Titan Investors has completed a deal to buy the property at 19-21 Old Bond Street from the Henry Smith Charity.

Titan, a London-based sector-agnostic group, has paid £92m for the building, reflecting a sub-4% yield.

Titan has invested around £500m into its UK-wide portfolio retail warehouses, long-income logistics and central London offices, and credits itself as one of the first investors to pursue a regional office development strategy following the financial crisis.

The Henry Smith Charity was founded in 1628 and is one of the largest grant-making charities in the UK. The disposal is a strategic sale aimed at rebalancing the charity’s portfolio.

It first instructed RX London to sell 19-21 Old Bond Street in February 2022. Terms were agreed to sell it to another investor, but the asset was withdrawn from the market after the sale did not progress. The building was then relaunched in March before a competitive process ensued.

The freehold development comprises 25,952 sq ft of office and retail space opposite the Royal Arcade.

The building produces an annual income of £6.04m a year, with Max Mara, which occupies a double-fronted retail unit, responsible for 80% of the income. The fashion brand has a lease on the space until 2034 at a rent reflecting £1,600 Zone A.

The office space above is multi-let to four tenants. The passing rent is £235/sq ft overall and there is a long leasehold interest in place which receives 45% of the income.

RX London advised The Henry Smith Charity. Kieran D Cotter & Co acted for the purchaser.

CoStar News

Two trophy assets on Bond Street, London’s most famous high-end retail thoroughfare, are set to trade for £154.5 million in total, CoStar News can reveal.

The Henry Smith Charity, advised by RX London, is understood to be under offer to sell 19-21 Old Bond Street, W1, Max Mara’s retail flagship on the famous London shopping street, for around £92 million.

The building is located alongside Salvatore Ferragamo, Rolex, Moncler, Stella McCartney, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana and Tods and comprises 25,952 square feet of accommodation, with a double-fronted retail unit arranged on basement ground and first floors with offices on second to fifth floors.

The building first came to market in 2022 with Max Mara responsible for 80% of the total income on a lease until 2034 at a rent reflecting £1,600 Zone A.

The Henry Smith Charity was founded in 1628. Nearly four centuries after it was first established and is one of the largest grant-making charities in Britain paying out £39.7 million in 2021. The asset has been bought by a private UK investor.

Tasaki’s flagship store at 170 New Bond Street has gone under offer for around £62. 5 million.

CBRE and Michael Elliott are advising the private US owner with the price paid translating to a circa 3.25% yield. The building comprises 4,198 square feet of retail leased to Japanese fine jewellery group Tasaki until June 2049. Tasaki opened its store in 2019 for its first in Europe.

The asset is being bought by a private UK investor, with the vehicle behind the acquisition called Marlborough Property Ltd according to Land Registry filings. That company is linked to high street retailer Dunelm’s founder and entrepreneur Sir William Adderley.

The sales come at a time when there has been some concern that an increasingly strong London investment market may be knocked off course by concerns over the economy and inflation in part driven by the war in Iran. CBRE’s latest figures show central London investment volumes were subdued in April, totaling £0.2 billion. This brought the year-to-date total to £1.6 billion, 34% down on the same period last year.

While the sales will lift market participants, Bond Street properties have historically remained highly sought after irrespective of how the wider investment market is functioning in the UK.

Kieran D Cotter & Co acted on behalf of the buyers of both properties.

CoStar News

A trophy building on London’s New Bond Street is set to sell for around £71 million or a sub-3% net initial yield, with Dyson, the household appliances retail and engineering group, being linked to the purchase.

Market sources said a private investor has exchanged to buy 126-127 New Bond Street, as London’s most exclusive shopping address continues to generate huge investor appetite. A number of independent market sources who declined to speak on the record said Dyson, famed for its strikingly designed vacuum cleaners, is the likely buyer.

Market sources said Michael Elliott has been advising the private Hong Kong owner on the sale of the building.

The 12,900 square feet retail block changed hands in 2013 for £44.1 million, at which time it was the flagship UK retail outlet of the upmarket Italian menswear boutique, Canali.

Last year Swaine, one of the UK’s oldest luxury goods brands, founded in 1750 and formerly known as Swaine Adeney Brigg, opened a 7,000 square feet flagship store at the building “as the centrepiece of its most radical rebrand in 273 years”.

Founded in 1991 by James Dyson in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, Dyson designs and manufactures household appliances including vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and air purifiers. As of 2022, Dyson has more than 14,000 employees worldwide.

Investments on Bond Street have remained in high demand throughout a wider downturn in transactional activity, driven by the continued desire of the world’s most famous luxury brands to have an address there.

A critical factor in recent years has been luxury retailers buying their own buildings on Bond Street, forcing other brands to look further afield. Examples include Richemont buying 50 New Bond Street with Oxford Properties, while Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Prada and Sotheby’s have all bought assets on the street.

Last month, Swiss luxury goods group Richemont exchanged to buy British jewellery retailer Boodles’ flagship store at 178 New Bond Street for £82 million, or a 2.2% net initial yield.

That was a speedy re-investment on Bond Street by Richemont which sold 130-134 New Bond Street to Blackstone for £227 million earlier this year alongside its investment partner Oxford Properties.

Kieran D Cotter & Company acted for the buyer.

EQT Exeter has agreed to acquire 250 beds in an operating asset known as Great Court, located in South Bermondsey, London, which is within close commute to all of the top-tier London universities and easy access to South Bermondsey rail station and Bermondsey tube station.

It provides a high-specification offering to students including 24/7 reception, gym, study space, courtyard, cinema and lounge. The development was built with excellent sustainability credentials, achieving BREEAM Excellent and EPC A. The asset will be operated by CRM, an award-winning operator in the UK and EU with approximately 25,000 beds under management and a history dating back to 2003. Under CRM’s management, the asset achieved full occupancy when it opened in 2021.

Kieran D Cotter & Co acted on behalf of Tide Construction.

Sir Will Adderley’s Marlborough Property Company has bought the freehold, mixed use site in the heart of the Harley Street Medical Area, which traded for the first time in 44 years.

After a competitive bidding process, Arax Properties, in joint venture with an institutional partner, sold the once in a generation opportunity, comprising more than 260,000 sq ft of which almost 170,000 sq ft is in the immediate control of the Freeholder offering substantial asset management opportunities. The estate includes 3-acres of subterranean car park let at only £4.11 per sq ft with the potential for medical or urban logistics redevelopment.

Giles Morse, Partner, Arax Properties added: “We are delighted with the outcome of this marketing process and now our joint venture will look forward to building a portfolio reflecting our shared focus on creating best-in-class central London office buildings.”

Arax Properties were advised by RX London and Kieran D Cotter & Co represented Marlborough Property Company.

The New Bond Street home of the jewellers has been snapped up by an overseas investor, the Evening Standard understands.

A private Hong Kong-based buyer is buying the 26 New Bond Street site of Lucie Campbell, which specialises in diamond engagement and wedding rings, for around £28 million.

Kieran D Cotter & Cushman & Wakefield acted on behalf of the vendor.

CBRE Global Investors has acquired three Marks & Spencer Foodhall sites in Greater London for a combined £28m from WA Capital in an off-market deal, Property Week can reveal.

The three stores, located in Beckenham, Rickmansworth and Temple Fortune, are all held freehold and two have residential development potential. The three assets all have nine years’ unexpired leases to Marks & Spencer with just under an average of 2% per annum rental growth.

Beckenham is the largest asset at 23,207 sq ft arranged at three levels with food sales accommodation at ground floor and direct access to Beckenham High Street. On expiry of the lease in nine years’ time, Marks & Spencer has the right to a further lease at open market rent for a term of 40 years from 1 April 2027, with five yearly rent reviews and a tenant break clause on in March 2042. The current ERV is £440,000 per annum or £19.00/sq ft.

Alongside the retail element, the site has a large car park to the rear and potential, subject to planning permission, to develop a substantial residential scheme in the south east London suburb.

The 22,254 sq ft Temple Fortune store sits on a prominent site on the east side of Finchley Road in the area between Golders Green and Hampstead Garden in north west London. There is no break clause on the lease to Marks & Spencer which again expires in 2027 with the right to a further lease at open market rent for a term of 40 years. The current ERV is £22.50/sq ft. It has potential to develop a residential scheme on the large rear car park, under croft car parking or above the building itself.

Finally, the 20,547 sq ft store in Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire is close to the London Underground station in the town centre and has a dedicated car park accessible from Wensum Way. Marks & Spencer pays an annual rent of £14.91/sq ft for an ERV of £22.50/sq ft on a lease expiring in 2027. On expiry of the lease in nine years’ time M&S have the right to a further lease at open market rent for a term of 40 years, with five yearly rent reviews.

Earlier this year, Marks & Spencer revealed that it will shut 100 stores by 2022, accelerating the company re-organisation programme it originally announced in November 2016. The closures will focus on clothing and home stores but the company has also scaled back its ambitions for expansion. It had planned to open 40 news Simply Food outlets, but it has decided to open 25 instead. The acceleration of M&S’s UK store estate programme is part of M&S’s wider five-year transformation plan to make the brand “special again”.

Kieran D Cotter advised WA Capital, Heywood and Partners advised CBRE GI.

LONDON–Greystar Real Estate Partners (“Greystar”), the global rental housing leader, and Henderson Park, the European real estate investment platform founded by Nick Weber, announce that they have exchanged contracts with Tide Construction Limited (“Tide Construction”), to acquire a c. 550-apartment residential development at 101 George Street in Croydon, London. On completion, the development will comprise two of the world’s tallest towers built using modular construction, at 44-storeys and 38-storeys. The site has full planning permission, and the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.

Kieran D Cotter acted on behalf of Tide Construction.

Investment/finance | Costar

Hong Kong investor CC Land Holdings is to buy One Kingdom Street, the Paddington headquarters of Vodafone, for £292m.

CC Land is due to exchange contracts later today on the acquisition of the building from a joint venture between TIAA and Swedish pension funds AP1 and AP2 for a net initial yield of around 5% on the SPV purchase.

Comprising 264,898 sq ft of grade A office space over 12 floors, the building has 27,300 sq ft office floor plates.The building is fully let to occupiers including Vodafone, Statoil, Shire Pharmaceuticals, Misys and MWB with a weighted unexpired term certain of 6.8 years.

It produces a total passing rent of £14.4m pa reflecting a low average rent of £54.60 per sq ft overall.There is also the ability to significantly increase rental levels with 89% of the space subject to rent reviews in 2018.

JLL and Michael Elliott were appointed towards the end of last year to quietly market the building for £300 million, reflecting a yield of 4.73%, assuming purchaser’s costs of 1.8% and a capital value of £1,132 per sq ft.

Kieran D Cotter & Co. acted for CC Land.

Deals | Property Week

Hong Kong firm CC Land Holdings, owned by billionaire Cheung Chung-Kiu, has acquired a Paddington office building for £292m.

It has agreed a deal to buy One Kingdom Street from Cityhold Office Partnership.

The 260,000 sq ft building is home to Vodafone and Statoil and was bought by the Cityhold – a joint venture between TIAA and two of Sweden’s national pension funds AP1 and AP2 – in 2011 for around £230m.

The JV still holds around £700m of property in London, as well as a number of buildings in other European cities. In total, its portfolio is worth around €2bn.

Cheung is also rumoured to be one of the parties vying to buy British Land’s 50% stake in the Cheesegrater.

Michael Elliott and JLL acted for Cityhold and Kieran Cotter advised the buyer.

Investment/finance | Estates Gazette

Leicestershire-based Marlborough Property Co has bought a portfolio of Marks & Spencer shops in London for £122.5m.The portfolio comprises 11 M&S shops, including Camden, Chiswick, Clapham, Kilburn and Putney.

The off-market deal forms part of a sub-sale from US firm Fortress Investment Group’s purchase of Topland’s £450m M&S portfolio, which completed in September. M&S still has more than 10 years remaining on its leases and has an option to extend for a further 40 years on expiry. A number of the stores have large development potential.

Kieran D Cotter & Company acted for Marlborough; HP Four advised Fortress Group.

Investment/finance | Costar

Leicestershire based Marlborough Property Co has completed the purchase of a £122.5m core London M&S portfolio, bought as a sub-sale from Fortress Investment Group’s recent acquisition of Topland’s £410m Marks & Spencer portfolio.

Marlborough Property Co. Ltd. completes on £122.5m Core London M&S portfolio Marlborough is a wholly owned subsidiary of WA Capital Ltd., the private investment office for Will Adderley, deputy chairman of Dunelm Group plc.

The portfolio comprises 11 London/Greater London M&S stores including Camden, Chiswick, Clapham, Kilburn and Putney.

The purchase was undertaken off market. M&S has more than 10 years remaining on the leases and has an option to extend for another 40 years on expiry. A number of the stores have larger development potential.

Kieran D Cotter & Company acted for the purchaser Marlborough. HP Four acted for the vendor Fortress Group.

Topland confirmed its sale of a portfolio of 76 Marks & Spencer stores to US private equity firm Fortress, as first revealed by Costar News, last month. The property firm did not disclose the price but it is understood to be £410m. The initial asking price of £500m reflected a net initial yield of 5.87%.

Costar News also revealed that Wells Fargo has secured pole position to provide the acquisition financing for the portfolio, understood to be a senior loan at a mid-60s loan to value implying a figure of in excess of £260m.

Aviva provided the outstanding senior debt on the portfolio.

M&S sold the portfolio of long leasehold and freehold stores to Topland in 2001 for £348m as part of plans to return £2bn to shareholders. The retailer then leased the stores back for an initial annual sum of around £24.6m, continuing to trade in all of the sites.

It contains 13 prime London assets including M&S stores in Camden, Chiswick, Clapham and Putney. It stretches across 3.45m sq. ft. and has a combined annual rent of £31.35m.

Topland said the portfolio also includes some non M&S income where Topland has asset managed the portfolio to create value.

Deals | Property Week

The record for the highest capital value paid per square foot for a real estate asset in the UK has been smashed twice this week by two separate deals for jewellery stores on London’s Bond Street.

169 New Bond Street let to Piaget is the new record holder at £18,500/sq. ft.

A private UK investor has bought 169 New Bond Street, let to luxury watch and jewellery brand Piaget, for £65m, which equates to a capital value of £18,500/sq. ft. The deal for the 3,500 sq. ft. boutique store, which reflects a yield of 1.61%, represents by far the highest price paid per square foot for a UK real estate asset.

It breaks the record set earlier this week when Hong Kong tycoon Ian Ng paid more than £13,000/sq. ft. for Indian billionaire Nirav Modi’s new jewellery store at 31 Old Bond Street. Ng paid just under £40m for the 2,827 sq. ft. store, which was sold by a US investor.

The previous capital value record is understood to be around the £11,000/sq. ft. mark.

“These extraordinary sums are further evidence that certain investors are still seeking the right type of product in the West End’s luxury retail market,” one agent told Property Week.

CBRE was appointed by a Saudi Arabian family office earlier this year to seek a buyer for 169 New Bond Street on an off-market basis.

Piaget, which is owned by Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, agreed a then record retail rent of £965/sq. ft. zone A for the store in 2009. That rental record has since been broken several times and is now held by Nirav Modi, which agreed to pay £1,750/sq. ft. for 31 Old Bond Street in February this year.

Cushman & Wakefield was appointed in March to sell 31 Old Bond Street at a guide price of £37m, which reflected a yield of 2.54%.

Ng’s acquisition is his third in the London market and follows the £36m purchase of 368 Oxford Street, let to Italian lingerie store Intimissimi, in June last year. Investment activity in Bond Street, which has traditionally attracted the highest capital values in London, was somewhat subdued last year, with only one deal, the £70m sale of 139 New Bond Street, completing. That store, which was sold by antique jeweller and owner-occupier SJ Phillips to Trophaeum Asset Management, was traded at a capital value of just under £7,000/ sq. ft.

Kieran D Cotter & Co advised the buyer of 169 New Bond Street and Savills represented the buyer of 31 Old Bond Street.

Investment/finance | Offices | Estates Gazette

Helical Bar has sold Enterprise House in Paddington, W2 for £43m.

The sale to a private overseas buyer represents a 10% premium to book value and a 4% yield.

The 45,000 sq ft Art Deco building was bought by Helical in 2013 in part of a 20-year sale and leaseback deal with Network Rail.

Helical will use the proceeds in part to pay down £30m of debt.

Duncan Walker, Helical Bar’s investment director, said: “We are pleased to have sold Enterprise House, a mature asset in a strong location within central London. This disposal enables us to capitalise on the strong London market, freeing up capital to deploy into our other London opportunities, which will benefit from Helical’s expertise in extracting latent value through development, refurbishment and asset management.”

Kieran D Cotter & Morgan Williams acted for the purchaser. Tudor Toone acted for the vendor.

Retail | Estates Gazette

Aidan Brooks’ Tribeca Holdings has continued its West End retail spree with the acquisition of a mixed-use Chelsea block offering the potential for redevelopment.

The Irish retail investor has paid £14.00 million for 76-82 Sloane Avenue, SW3, an 8,000 sq ft mixed-use property which until recently was home to fish restaurant Poissonnerie, run by Peter Rosignoli.

The vacant block, which also includes three upper residential floors, has scope for re­development into a ground-floor shop with six luxury flats above.

A planning application is expected next year.

Tribeca already owns the adjoining block at 72-74 Sloane Avenue, SW3, which is leased to fashion brand Joseph.

The deal follows Tribeca’s £1bn move to take full control of its London portfolio, buying out partners across its estate on assets including the nearby Brompton Cross Estate, SW3, and Old Spitalfields Market, E1, on the City fringe.

Kieran D Cotter & Co acted for Tribeca Holdings; Miles Commercial acted for the vendor.

Deals | Estates Gazette

Meadow Partners, on behalf of the North Carolina Pension Fund, has exchanged contracts to purchase 10-18 Victoria Street, SW1, for £78.00 m – a 3.64% yield. The block, let to the government for 10 years on a low rent of £36.77 per sq ft, has potential for redevelopment or refurbishment.

Kieran D Cotter & Co advised the buyer; DTZ acted for the private vendor.

Investment/finance | Retail | Estates Gazette

A pair of prime Oxford Street, W1, retail assets have changed hands for £59m in two separate off-market deals.

Private overseas purchasers have bought number 368, let to Italian lingerie store Intimissimi, for £36m, and number 386, let to Doc Martin, for £23.00 million.

The 5,993 sq ft Intimissimi store was bought from Whithaven Holdings by a Hong Kong investor. The price reflected a 2.12% yield.

It is let to Intimissimi until 2018 at a zone A rent of £760 per sq ft, and has an ERV of £900 per sq ft.

The Doc Martin store was sold by M&G, and is let on a new 15-year lease at an £865 per sq ft zone A rent, reflecting a 2.25% net initial yield.

It sits next to a block owned by Selfridges, and has been earmarked as part of a possible wider future redevelopment site.

CBRE advised the purchaser on 368; Knight Frank advised vendor Whithaven Holdings.

Kieran D Cotter & Co and Cushman & Wakefield advised the purchaser on 386; M&G were unrepresented.

News in brief | Estates Gazette 

WP Carey has paid £230.5m – a 7.25% yield – to US hedge fund Baupost for a portfolio of 73 Pendragon car dealerships. The 1.6m sq ft portfolio makes up a third of Pendragon’s UK footprint.

Kieran D Cotter & Co represented Baupost; CBRE acted for WP Carey.

Offices | Estates Gazette

 Green Property has sold the freehold of Kings House and Queens House in Harrow, Middlesex, to Dandi Living and ICG Longbow for £23.80 million.

The deal – which includes the adjoining car park – covers the 82,000 sq ft multi-let Kings House and the 48,000 sq ft Queens House, which is mostly vacant.

Tenants at Kings House include Trillium Property GP and polling firm Ipsos MORI UK.

The deal represents a net initial yield of 4.6%.

Queens House has planning permission for change of use to 64 homes via permitted development rights.

Green Property director Michael Tapp said: “The level of interest and price achieved is a strong indication of the wider London appeal among investors and residential developers. Securing reversionary leases on more space to Ipsos MORI added significant value to the deal.”

Kieran D Cotter & Co represented the purchaser; Green Property were represented by Doherty Baines and Chamberlain Commercial.

Industrial | Estates Gazette

IPUT has bought a 325,608 sq ft Dublin warehouse off-market, bringing the Irish fund’s investment in the country’s logistics sector in 2014 to €95m (£76.3m).

The firm paid €36.00 million  – a 6.7% net initial yield – to a private UK investor for the property at Damastown business park. The shed is let to supply chain provider Geodis Logistics, with 12 years remaining on the lease. Rental income is €2.5m pa.

Over the past six months IPUT has been targeting industrial properties and has invested €95m in the asset class so far this year, producing a blended yield of 7.15% for the fund’s investors.

Assets under management by IPUT now total€1.2bn.

Kieran D Cotter & Co advised the buyer; Michael Elliott represented the vendor.

Investment/finance | Estates Gazette

Kieran Cotter, investment partner and central London specialist at Morgan Williams, is leaving the business after nine years to set up his own company.

Cotter is setting up Kieran D Cotter & Co, a specialist investment consultancy, which will be based at 63 Jermyn Street , SW1.

During his time at Morgan Williams – where he has been since 2005 – Cotter has been involved in a number of big City and West End deals, including the £87.5m sale of Prada’s HQ at 17-18 Old Bond Street , W1, and the £202m purchase of 70 Gracechurch Street , EC3.

Prior to this he worked at Knight Frank and CB Hillier Parker