Close to £300 million of offices and retail buildings in London's West End have gone under offer or sold in recent days, suggesting a welcome pick-up in investor activity is under way.
The sales have been for either core assets or value add, both areas where there is a clear depth of demand in the West End.
CBRE Investment Management, on behalf of the Shell Pension Fund, is in talks to sell 103-105 Jermyn Street to a purchaser understood to be Zero Carbon Space, a joint venture between London-based investor and developer Northstar Capital and Landcap, for around £29 million, CoStar News can reveal.
The 23,444-square-foot seven-storey office and retail block in St James's, which is being sold by Cushman & Wakefield, is a value-add opportunity given there is some vacancy. Tenants include Helicon Investments and Hill Dickinson. Colliers is advising the purchaser.
Separately, a private Middle Eastern investor has bought a retail and office building next door at 96-97 Jermyn Street for £15.5 million or a 3.5% net initial yield. 96–97 Jermyn Street comprises retail and offices arranged over basement, ground and four upper floors totalling 7,185 square feet. It has four tenants including British retailer Harvie & Hudson, which has been in occupation since 1964, with the offices leased to Audere Solutions and Transformation Nous.
Elsewhere, a high-net-worth private individual has bought 22-23 Queen Annes Gate for £21 million from vendor Simonton Investments. The property comprises two townhouses built in 1775 and overlooking St James's Park and could be developed as either offices or residential.
Colliers and Savills acted on the sale.
The sales come as Hines is in talks to buy Film House on Wardour Street in Soho from WeWork's Ark investment arm for around £135 million. Newmark is advising Ark on the sale of the former headquarters of Nike in Soho, which Ark bought with a hotel scheme stapled to the asset. The 98,690 square foot development has three adjoining buildings that had planning consent for a 176-bed "lifestyle" hotel, rooftop restaurant and bar.
Ark pursued a bid for office use financed on the basis that it would secure vacant possession in the short term and then effect a redevelopment adding extra space. Its bid included a legally binding agreement from WeWork to lease the space.
Finally, JP Morgan is in talks to buy 20 Rathbone Place for around £65 million from Lothbury Investment Management. React News first revealed the talks.
The 41,480-square-foot building is leased to tenants including BE Spoke, T Systems and Pixelogic Media.
Progress on the sales follows a quiet few weeks in the West End. Savills reports that in April investment turnover totalled £113.7 million across five transactions, bringing cumulative 2023 volumes to £805.35 million, spread across 18 deals. That was down 48% on the five-year average and 64% on the 10-year average. April witnessed the lowest monthly turnover in the year to date, according to the adviser.