Sale of 52 Poland Street

RNS Number : 5582P

British Land Co PLC

20 August 2014

 



                                                                                    20 August 2014

British Land announces the sale of 52 Poland Street

British Land announces today that it has exchanged on the sale of 52 Poland Street, to Amazon Property for £26 million reflecting a capital value of nearly £1,300psf.

52 Poland Street is a 20,500 sq ft multi-let building over basement, ground and seven upper office floors. The total passing rent of £693,373 equates to £33.84 psf. The ground and basement floors are occupied by Yo! Sushi and Lucky Voice karaoke bar.

Located in Soho, the building is 300 metres from the new Crossrail Station at Tottenham Court, and a short walk from Oxford Street. Amazon Property in a JV will acquire the freehold of the building at 51% ahead of the March 2014 book value, at a Net Initial Yield of 2.5%.

Tim Roberts, Head of Offices, British Landsaid: "The expiry profile at 52 Poland Street means there is potential for vacant possession of upper parts in June 2015. The site attracted very strong interest, reflecting the strength and depth of the WE investment market. It is an opportune time to sell and focus on projects elsewhere in our portfolio."

Chris Lanitis, Partner, Amazon Property said "This is a strategic acquisition to add to our growing portfolio in an area where we see considerable growth prospects"

CBRE and Irwin Mitchell advised British Land. Amazon Property was unrepresented.

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                020 7467 2942

Media

Andrew Scorgie, FTI Consulting                                       020 3727 1458

Pip Wood, British Land                                                   020 7467 2942

About British Land

We are one of Europe's largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £17.6 billion (British Land share of which is £11.9 billion), as valued at 31 March 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people's everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places.

UK Retail assets account for 53% (pro forma for developments at estimated end value) of our portfolio. As the UK's largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across 63 retail parks, 82 superstores, 14 shopping centres, 12 department stores and 77 leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats.

Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 47% (pro forma for developments at estimated end value) of our portfolio is focused on London. We have an attractive mix of high‑quality buildings in well‑managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.3 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent's Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share).

Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer.

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

About Amazon Property

Amazon Property is a multi-disciplinary investment and development group, with an impressive track record in the real estate sectors, in particular the prime central London luxury residential market.  To date Amazon Property has acquired well in excess of 2 million square feet comprising investments, developments and trading assets. Amazon Property specialises in transforming once office/commercial spaces into stunning luxury apartments all across Zone 1.

The company currently has a development pipeline of circa £800million in GDV over 15 projects.

 

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