Acquisition of the Clarges Estate for ?129.6m

RNS Number : 4170I

British Land Co PLC

25 July 2012

 



British Land acquires the Clarges Estate, Mayfair for £129.6 million

British Land has entered into a corporate agreement to purchase Clarges House, 6/12 Clarges Street and 82/84 Piccadilly in Mayfair based on a property price of £129.6 million. The site is located on Piccadilly overlooking Green Park, and is close to the Ritz and Bond Street. The acquisition is expected to complete in November 2012.

Both buildings are freehold and together comprise over 119,000 sq ft of existing office and retail space. 82/84 Piccadilly comprises approximately 84,600 sq ft and is let until December 2012. Clarges House totals 34,700 sq ft of offices and is currently vacant. Adjoining the two is the Kennel Club at 1-5 Clarges Street which is freehold and owner occupied.

British Land intends to redevelop the entire site to create a landmark mixed-use scheme. Planning consent was granted in April 2011 for redevelopment of the site to comprise 191,000 sq ft net. The scheme, designed by Squire & Partners, includes 63,000 sq ft of luxury private residential units fronting Piccadilly with 7,900 sq ft of retail below, 91,000 sq ft of high quality offices in a separate block, and a new Kennel Club building. Design and planning work is already underway to improve the existing consent.

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices at British Land, said "I am excited by this unique opportunity to buy nearly an acre of land in Mayfair, where we can leverage our financial and development expertise to add value. The scale of development will create a landmark building and will further enhance British Land's presence in the West End."

On completion, the acquisition of the Clarges Estate will add further to British Land's central London development programme. Covering both offices and residential schemes, our 2.3 million sq ft of committed developments includes: a new 700,000 sq ft building for UBS at 5 Broadgate; The Leadenhall Building, a 610,000 sq ft tower, in London's insurance district; and a 500,000 sq ft mixed use office and residential scheme at our Regent's Place estate in the West End along with a number of stand-alone residential developments. Since the beginning of 2009, we have completed 143,000 sq ft of residential developments in London, with a further 200,000 sq ft due to be completed by the end of 2013.  The acquisition of Clarges House will add to our prospective residential pipeline.

The vendors were advised by CBRE and Olswang, and British Land was advised by Mayer Brown.

For Information Contact

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                   020 7467 2942

Media 

Pip Wood, British Land                                     020 7467 2838

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group/                     020 7251 3801

Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.8 billion (British Land share £10.3 billion), as valued at 31 March 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 300 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98.1% and average lease length to first break of 11.3 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 61% of our portfolio with around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 89 retail parks, 97 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. Over 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 34% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business and we focus on five areas which matter most to us and our key stakeholders: managing buildings efficiently; developing sustainable buildings; enhancing biodiversity; exceeding customers' expectations and focusing on local communities. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to our corporate vision of building the best REIT in Europe.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

 

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