LaSalle Investment Management and Trilogy Property Advisers are buying a London office property from Criterion Capital.
The joint venture is paying £170m (€181m) for East India Dock through a Jersey property unit trust.
The asset, near Canary Wharf, was first put on the market at the beginning of this year, according to press reports.
East India Dock, a 593,233 sqft multi-let campus with retail and leisure, includes four office buildings.
Current passing rent in the asset is around £20 per square foot, with a weighted, average unexpired lease term of under three years.
LaSalle and Trilogy will refurbish the property and aim to lease space at around £30 per square foot.
Conversion to residential use – which Criterion had reportedly considered – has not been ruled out by the joint venture.
Chris Lewis, head of transaction support at LaSalle, said the asset was an “exceptional opportunity to create a vibrant new business quarter in a well-connected part of London”.
“It is in the heart of an area undergoing a significant transformation, with new residential developments and the impending introduction of Crossrail drawing people to the neighbourhood,” Lewis said.
“We want to provide a viable alternative for occupiers priced out of more traditional business locations and previously affordable hubs, such as Shoreditch.”
Rental growth has returned to the UK’s commercial property sector, according to a recent report by Legal & General.
At the company’s Fundamentals briefing in London today, Rob Martin, research director for Real Assets, said rental growth was the main driver of commercial property capital growth.
“Commercial property rents are rising, buoyed by stronger tenant demand and a shrinking supply of space,” he said.
