CBRE Global Investors has emerged as the buyer of the office and residential complex 1-5 Howick Place in London sold by Doughty Hanson & Co and Urban & Civic last week.
CBRE Global Investors has emerged as the buyer of the office and residential complex 1-5 Howick Place in London sold by Doughty Hanson & Co and Urban & Civic last week.
The acquisition was carried out by CBRE GI on behalf of a separate account client believed to be the Berlin-based pension fund for German doctors and chemists Verwaltungsgesellschaft für Versorgungswerke (VGV).
The sale marks the first exit from a portfolio that has been asset managed by Invesco Real Estate (IRE) on behalf of Doughty Hanson since April 2014. Private equity firm Doughty Hanson is withdrawing from the real estate sector.
Kevin Grundy, head of European value-add strategies at IRE, said: 'Since joining IRE last year from Doughty Hanson, a number of us have continued to manage this development since its inception and we are particularly pleased to have achieved this final milestone.'
The asset was put up for sale last autumn for a price of £205 mln (€285 mln).
1-5 Howick Place is a freehold property located next to Westminster Cathedral and close to Buckingham Palace in the Victoria submarket of London’s West End. The scheme was completed in 2012 and offers 172,561 sq ft (16,000 m2) of accommodation, predominantly offices (81%) with 33 residential units on top and a 1,124 sq ft self-contained retail unit on the ground floor let to Iris & June.
The majority of the office space is let to DONG (Dansk Olie og Naturgas) Energy and the other tenants are Giorgio Armani (fashion), Informa (publishing) and Edelman (Public Relations).
'We have acquired a core property investment which will provide secure, long-term rental income,' commented Harald Flöer, director of portfolio management at CBRE Gl.
He added: 'The Victoria submarket has experienced significant regeneration over the last five years and we see this as a positive factor as the local vicinity continues to undergo improvements. We foresee that rental growth and occupier demand will continue to rise as the attractiveness of the location increases.'
