Commercial Property deal archive

November 2009

Beauchamp sale and leaseback of premises let to Tesco and HSBC

We have successfully completed its first transaction acting for new client, Beauchamp Investments Limited. Beauchamp’s sale and leaseback of premises let to Tesco and HSBC represents Beauchamp’s first commercial property investment in the UK for many years.

Commenting on the transaction Neil Sagoo said “We are delighted to have been able to help Beauchamp return to the UK commercial property investment market. This is an important step for Beauchamp and we are proud to have been involved.”

Neil was assisted by Erika Willmott and Rose Lambert. Eversheds (Iftkhar Ahmed) advised HSBC.

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April 2009

25 Maddox Street W1 – Sold for £33.5M

Chris Wilkinson and James Barnett acted for Norwich Union Life and Pensions Limited c/o Aviva Investors, on the sale of the freehold of 25 Maddox Street, London, W1 for £33.5 million. The property was sold to a private overseas investor.

The property comprises 31,000 sq ft (2,879.9 sq m) of Grade A office, retail and restaurant accommodation. The building is fully let to 7 tenants, including Conde Nast Publications Limited, producing a rental income of approximately £2.5 million per annum, which equates to £79.98 per sq ft overall.

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February 2009

US Embassy relocation

We advised the United States Government in relation to its acquisition of an almost five acre development site for a new embassy building at Nine Elms Lane in Wandsworth, London from Ballymore Properties

The deal is conditional on US Congressional approval and planning permission. Mark Bryan, who led the team, commented:

“This deal is of great importance to the United States. The new embassy building is intended to provide a modern, open environmentally sustainable and secure diplomatic facility in an accessible part of London.

As you can imagine with any deal of this significance there were a number of detailed procedural and legal obstacles to deal with. We are therefore proud to have played a major part in such an exciting transaction”.

The team also included Declan Power, Neil Sagoo, Roger Thornton and Kate Gallagher

Ballymore Properties were advised by Wragge & Co. (Peter Thorne)

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Frontier Estates – Enfield

Frontier Estates instructed us on their acquisition of the GE Lighting site in Enfield for redevelopment.

The site is a prime freehold 8.1 acre development site with around 375,000 square feet of dilapidated buildings on it. Frontier are planning to redevelop the site as a mixed use scheme to include a hotel, car showrooms, self storage unit and trade and business units. Planning consent has been granted and three plots have been disposed of to Big Yellow, Toyota, and a hotel operator.

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P & O Estates – joint venture with Property Merchant Group to redevelop prime West End site

We are acting for P&O Estates in a joint venture with The Property Merchant Group to develop three adjoining buildings at the junction of Regent Street and Margaret Street, London W1.

The buildings occupy a prime West End site of around 76,000 square feet and present an excellent mixed use redevelopment opportunity of over 100,000 square feet of offices, retail and residential behind their retained Regent Street facade.

The joint venture has obtained planning permission for the proposed redevelopment and has recently acquired a separate site in Newman Street for around £16million to accommodate the offsite residential (including affordable housing).

The scheme, once redeveloped and let, is likely to be worth in excess of £175million.

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August 2008

Legal & General

In July 2008, Maples Teesdale were appointed to the Legal & General commercial property panel as the lawyers for the Managed Fund. We are acting on a variety of work including disposals, lettings, development advice, and portfolio asset management work. In particular, we were instructed on the sale of a Tesco Distribution Unit in Brackmills for around £12million.

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February 2008

Imperial House, Windsor

St. Congar Properties, Miff Chichester’s new development company, have acquired Intercontinental Hotel Group's 50,000 sq.ft headquarters in Windsor, Berkshire in a joint venture with equity house Europa Capital. They have paid £15m for the 4.5 acre site bought from the Crown Estate. The joint venture plans a large mixed use scheme when IHG relocates later this year. The site has potential for more than 200,000 sq. ft. worth of offices and homes.

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December 2007

21-29 Maddox Street, London W1

Norwich Union Life & Pensions Limited instructed us on the lettings of the development at 21- 29 Maddox Street, London W1, with the project being managed for NU by Property Merchant Group. The development was completed during the course of 2007 and the mixed use scheme has been fully let. The residential element within 21 Maddox Street was sold off as a separate freehold unit. The six floors of office space, amounting to over 2,400 sq metres, have been let to Conde Nast, Carillion and Aladdin Capital. There are three units at ground floor level, two of which have been let to art galleries and the third has provided the home for the re-located Hibiscus restaurant. Morley will manage the asset for NU.

Sale of 3 Prime City of London Redevelopment Sites

We acted for F & C Property Asset Management on behalf of Friends Provident and Royal & Sun Alliance on the co-ordination of the sales of 3 prime City of London redevelopment sites for over £50 million to an overseas investor. We also advised on the development management agreement between F&C Property Asset Management and the investor. The 3 sites are; 1 Bartholomew Lane, London EC2 which is being redeveloped to provide approximately 76,000 square feet of accommodation available mid 2009. 1 Kings Arms Yard, London EC2 a prime leasehold development site with permission for a new office development providing about 60,000 square feet of office accommodation, 33 King Street, London EC2 which will provide a new office development of about 33,000 square feet.

CLS signs new Leases with Capgemini for London Office

The Property investment company CLS Holdings plc has signed new leases with Capgemini UK plc regarding their current accommodation comprising 10,427 square meters of offices at Vauxhall Cross on the South Bank in London.

Capgemini has signed new reversionary leases effective from March 2009 when the current leases expire, until December 2016.

The rent will increase in March 2009 to circa £1.89 million a year from circa £1.74 million per annum.

Maples Teesdale acted for CLS on the lettings and Clyde & Co acted for Capgemini.

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November 2007

Frontier Estates – Enfield

Frontier Estates instructed us on their acquisition of the GE Lighting site in Enfield for an undisclosed sum.

The site is a prime freehold 8.1 acre development site with around 375,000 sq. ft. of dilapidated industrial buildings on it. Frontier are planning to redevelop the site as a mixed use scheme to include self storage, hotel, car show rooms, trade and business units. A planning application will be submitted shortly.

IVG Asticus sells 46/47 New Broad Street, London EC2

IVG Asticus, one of Europe’s largest property companies, asked us to advise on the sale of City office building, 46/47 New Broad Street, fully occupied by Deutsche Bank, for a price in excess of £15.5m. The building represents a potential redevelopment opportunity in an area which is likely to be affected by Crossrail.

Royal & Sun Alliance let refurbished 62/63 Threadneedle Street in City of London

Royal & Sun Alliance, through asset managers F&C Property Asset Management, instructed us on the first letting of their refurbished 62/63 Threadneedle Street office building in the City of London. The recruitment company has taken 4,000 square feet on the 7th floor on a 10 year Lease with a 5 year break at £65 square foot. DMH Stallard acted for the tenant. The building is the city headquarters of Royal Bank of Scotland.

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September 2007

P & O Estates – joint venture with Property Merchant Group to redevelop prime West End site

	Maples Teesdale are acting for P & O Estates, in a joint venture with Property Merchant Group, to redevelop three adjoining buildings at the junction of Regent Street and Margaret Street, London W1.

	The buildings occupy a prime West End corner site of around 76,000 sq ft and present an exceptional mixed use redevelopment opportunity of over 100,000 sq ft of offices retail and residential behind a retained Regent Street façade.

	The joint venture is preparing a planning application for the proposed redevelopment. The value of the scheme, once redeveloped and let, is likely to be in excess of £175 million.

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August 2007

Athanor and the Cubic Property Fund

Maples Teesdale are delighted to have acted for new clients, South African investor Athanor and the Cubic Property Fund, on several recent transactions. Specifically, they have completed the purchase and lease back of five retail warehouses from Wolseley UK Limited. The retail warehouses are at Portsmouth, Witney, Oldham, Newark and Huddersfield.

Also, recently Maples has completed the purchase of a retail park in Taunton. Tenants include Laura Ashley and Bathstore.

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July 2007

St. Lawrence House, Broad Street, Bristol and Nickalls House, Metro Centre, Gateshead

Maples Teesdale acted on the purchase of two properties recently for new client, Newbridge Capital.

The freehold interest of St. Lawrence House, Broad Street, Bristol was sold to Newbridge Capital for £8.35 million by a private investment company. The property is a multi-let office building in the centre of Bristol.

The second property is Nickalls House, Metro Centre, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear which Newbridge Capital purchased for £7 million from a UK Property Fund. Again the property is multi-let.

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June 2007

US Government – 20 Grosvenor Square, London

The United States of America appointed us as its legal advisor on the disposal of 20 Grosvenor Square.

The sale was completed in June 2007 and took two weeks from exchange to completion. It is the United States’ largest diplomatic property sale to date.

Mark Bryan and Louise Jones acted for the United States and Peter Paschalis of Howard Kennedy acted for the buyer, Grosvenor Square Limited.

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Imperial Place, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire

	Europa Capital and Property Merchant Group sells Imperial Place, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire to Schroders’ Gresham II .

	Gresham Real Estate Fund II,L.P., managed by Schroder Real Estate Ventures Group, has acquired the Imperial Place Office Campus in Borehamwood from a joint venture between Europa Fund II, the pan-European fund managed by Europa Capital, and The Property Merchant Group. The purchase price of £47m reflects a capital value of just over £200 per sq ft. The transaction was completed ‘off market’ as the vendors decided to sell after receiving an approach from Schroders.

Imperial Place is located on the edge of the town centre at the western end of Elstree Way which joins the A1 dual carriageway 1 mile to the east. The 4 buildings were constructed between 1992 and 2000 and extend to 225,000 sq ft with approximately 950 car parking spaces (a ratio of 1:250 sq ft). Until 2004 the campus was leased to T-Mobile as it's UK headquarters.

A major refurbishment followed T-Mobile’s vacation and the property was relaunched in September 2005. A number of lettings have subsequently been completed and approximately half of the floor space is now occupied by Signet, Pizza Hut, Groupama Insurance and Bradford and Bingley. Rents range from £16 per sq ft to £19 per sq ft, which was achieved on the latest letting.

There is now 110,000 sq ft available to let on floor plates of between 3,000 sq ft and 17,500 sq ft, with a car parking ratio of 1:250 sq ft.

Noel Manns, Principal of Europa Capital, said “We have been very pleased with the success of the investment we have made in Imperial Place and the quality of occupiers who have taken leases. The offer from Schroders has tempted us to make an opportunistic early sale although there is still value enhancement opportunities in the property.”

Europa Capital and The Property Merchant Group were advised by Maples Teesdale. SJ Berwin acted for Schroders.

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Pearl House, Swansea

Maples Teesdale have been acting for Pearl House Swansea Limited since 2004 on the extensive redevelopment of a mixed commercial and residential site in central Swansea. We have dealt with the removal of occupational tenants to obtain vacant possession, and been granting new commercial leases to various tenants. We are setting up a management company, preparing residential leases and obtaining financing from Lloyds TSB Bank plc. The developer is currently on site and has started to sell the residential flats.

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Pall Mall Court, Manchester

Maples Teesdale instructed by Resolution Asset Management acted for The London Assurance in granting a new lease of 450 sq/m of office space on the sixth floor of Pall Mall Court in central Manchester to Rapleys LLP at a rent of £101,000 p/a for a term of 10 years.

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Byker – Wilkinson Hardware Stores

Maples Teesdale instructed by Aprirose REI acted for Sheppard Investments Limited on the purchase of a newly developed Wilkinson Hardware Stores Limited store in Byker for £1,950,000.

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UK Commercial Property Trust Limited

UK Commercial Property Trust Limited, a new, closed ended, Guernsey registered investment company on 20th September 2006 acquired initial property portfolio from Phoenix & London Assurance Limited and Phoenix Life & Pensions Limited for aggregate consideration of £503.6 million.

The properties were externally valued as having a market value of £497.8 million, generating a current net annual rent of £24.4 million .

UK Commercial Property Trust Limited will invest in UK Commercial Property, which property will generally be held through its property subsidiary, UK Commercial Property Holdings Limited, the UK CPT Limited Partnership for other property holding subsidiaries.

The initial property portfolio comprised 20 properties forming a diversified portfolio of UK Commercial Properties.

Maples Teesdale acted for the sellers and Dickson Minto and Walker Morris acted for the new company.

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Arcadia House, Southampton

Resolution Asset Management (as agents for Phoenix Life Limited) have purchased Arcadia House, Southampton for £7.65m. Arcadia House is a substantial purpose built office building overlooking the Marina in Southampton's Ocean Village. It is let to BDO Stoy Hayward.

Maples Teesdale acted for Resolution Asset Management and Phoenix Life Limited.