Marble Arch House Acquisition

RNS Number : 2185Z

British Land Co PLC

11 January 2011

 



                                                                                                                11 January 2010

British Land Enters into Development Agreement to Purchase and Re-develop 
Marble Arch House

British Land today announces that it has entered into an agreement with The Portman Estate to purchase and redevelop Marble Arch House, W1. On receipt of vacant possession, British Land will pay £18 million for the development site.

Marble Arch House is on the corner of Seymour Street and Edgware Road, located within Portman Village and a short walk from Oxford Street and Hyde Park. The existing site consists of two mixed use five storey buildings, 32-50 Edgware Road and 62-64 Seymour Street.

The new development, which has detailed planning consent, has been designed by Bennett's Associates Architects and will deliver exceptional quality office, residential and retail space. The development has been designed to achieve a BREEAM excellent environmental rating.

The new building will comprise 60,000 sq ft of high quality office accommodation together with 15,000 sq ft of retail space. Adjacent to the new office building will be a development of ten luxury residential apartments with a 5,000 sq ft restaurant unit at ground level built behind the retained period Victorian facade of 62-64 Seymour Street. The total cost of development (excluding land and interest) is expected to be around £40 million.

Demolition and ground works are expected to start in mid-2011 with practical completion scheduled for mid-2013. On completion of the development, British Land will be granted a new 125 year leasehold interest on the commercial element of the development and a separate long leasehold on the residential units.

The acquisition of Marble Arch House for re-development adds further to British Land's significant central London office development programme. These developments, which will deliver 2.2 million sq ft of high quality space in London by 2014, include: a new 700,000 sq ft building for UBS at Broadgate; the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district; and the 500,000 sq ft NEQ building, which will complete the Regent's Place estate in the West End. The aggregate development cost, including land and interest is expected to be £1.6 billion, of which British Land's share is £1.1 billion.

Commenting on the acquisition, Tim Roberts, Head of Offices at British Land said, "We are pleased to have secured yet another great development opportunity on The Portman Estate. Marble Arch House will offer high quality accommodation at a time when supply will be limited in a West End location which is being regenerated."

Gareth Clutton, Chief Executive of The Portman Estate, said: "There was a great deal of interest in this development opportunity but British Land's proposal eclipsed the others and we are delighted to work with them again on this their third major transaction on The Portman Estate"

CBRE acted for The Portman Estate and Cushman & Wakefield for British Land.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                        020 7467 2942

Media

Pip Wood, British Land                                                           020 7467 2838

Guy Lamming, Finsbury Group                                              020 7251 3801

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group

Notes to Editors

About British Land 

British Land is one of the UK's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts with total assets, owned or under management, valued at £14.0 billion (British Land share £8.9 billion), as at 30 September 2010. Our property portfolio is focused on high quality destination retail locations and central London offices which we believe are well placed to benefit from growing customer demand. We have among the highest occupancy rates and lease lengths of the major UK REITs at 98% and 12.5 years respectively. 

Retail assets account for 65% of our portfolio, around 85% of which are located at prime out-of-town sites.  Our portfolio comprises over 26 million sq ft of retail space across 93 retail warehouse properties, 100 superstores, 10 shopping centres and 10 department stores. Our portfolio benefits from flexible planning consents making the portfolio adaptable to a wide range of formats. This allows us to actively manage our portfolio and deliver the most attractive space to both retailers and consumers.

Central London offices currently comprise 33% of the portfolio. Our portfolio comprises over 6 million of office space and includes a 50% share in Broadgate, the premier office campus in the City and Regent's Place, an office estate in the West End. During 2010, we committed to a significant development programme in central London which on the basis of current estimates of values at completion, increase the weighting of offices in the group's portfolio from 33% to 40%.

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

About The Portman Estate

The Portman Estate in London has been in the continuous ownership of the Portman family for almost 500 years. Originally covering an area of 270 acres of farmland stretching from Oxford Street to Regent's Canal, the land was acquired by Sir William Portman of Somerset, Lord Chief Justice to Henry VIII, in 1532. 

Today the Estate covers 110 acres of the West End of London, comprising 68 streets, four garden squares, and over 600 buildings, in residential, retail, office, hotel and assorted other uses.  Planning for the very long term, all investment and management effort is concentrated on making The Portman Estate one of central London's most attractive places to live, to work and to visit.

 

END

 

 

ACQGGUGGGUPGGMU