British Land buys Maidenhead offices

British Land has bought Grenfell Island, a mixed offices and leisure development in Maidenhead, for £74m. The 198,000 sq ft scheme includes 113,000 sq ft of office space let to Hutchison Telecom as its UK headquarters, and a 10-screen Odeon cinema and health club. The weighted average lease length for the entire property is 10.7 years, the group noted.

Grenfell Island was completed in 2000. British Land, which today unveiled the £57m purchase of the Wardrobe Court residential scheme in the City of London, pointed out in its announcement yesterday of the purchase that Maidenhead is considered to be one of the strongest South East office markets and will also be the western terminus for Crossrail, which will bring “exceptional” direct links to Heathrow and key central London business districts.

British Land’s head of offices, Tim Roberts, said the Grenfell Island purchase provided the group with “an attractive income return in an improving occupier market” and said it fitted well within its strategic priority of creating sustainable and growing property rental streams”.