City office market in the news
There are press reports of two large deals on office space in the City of London today. The Telegraph reports that private equity firm Carlyle is to put landmark City building Alban Gate on the market, only months after buying it with some other properties from the White Tower portfolio.
The 382,000 sq ft building (picture from skyscrapernews.com) houses JP Morgan’s operations and is leased by the bank until 2025, with the annual rent at £18.2m, the paper says, adding that Carlyle is understood to believe it can get more than £300m for the building – at that price it would represent a yield of 6%.
Carlyle has appointed GM Real Estate to advise on the sale. It bought Alban Gate with the other White Tower buildings in a £671m deal in July. The White Tower portfolio was previously owned by Simon Halabi. Carlyle may decide to use the proceeds of the Alban Gate sale to redevelop the other White Tower properties it owns.
Meanwhile, the Times reports today that financial news services company Bloomberg has finally agreed a deal to occupy a new building on a development on Queen Victoria Street to be designed by Lord Foster and Jean Nouvel. The original design was dubbed “Darth Vadar’s helmet” because of its shape, but there have since been some changes to the 875,000 sq ft scheme, the paper notes. Bloomberg is expected to confirm as soon as next week that it is taking a 500,000 sq ft building at the heart of the scheme, Legal & General’s Walbrook Square, in one of the largest deals in London since Nomura agreed last September to occupy the whole of Watermark Place near Cannon Bridge, the Telegraph says.
Tishman Speyer is expected to develop Bloomberg’s building, with construction possibly starting in 2012 and completion in 2015. The Times says Bloomberg may have agreed an initial rent of £52.50 per sq ft, with fixed uplifts.
