Henderson Park, the European real estate investment platform, has acquired Woolworth House at 242/246 Marylebone Road in London NW1 for £94 mln (€106 mln) from Hermes Investment Management.
Originally constructed in 1959, the Art Deco-style office building comprises 159,000 ft2 (14,700 m2) of space over eight storeys. It originally served as Woolworths UK headquarters, and is now fully let with BNP Paribas as the main tenant occupying almost 50% of the office accommodation.
'Woolworth House is an extremely well located and highly distinctive office building which we believe offers enormous potential in London’s West End office market that has seen many office to residential conversions since 2008 and a constrained development pipeline,' said Nick Weber, founding partner of Henderson Park.
'Our investment in Woolworth House is underpinned by the exciting asset management initiatives that we have identified for the building and our belief that London will retain its status as one of the world’s pre-eminent global cities and centres for international business, both of which will be key drivers of demand for the high-quality product that we intend to deliver.'
Woolworth House has multiple lease expiries with all leases due to expire by June 2022, presenting an opportunity to refurbish and re-let the building.
Chris Taylor, head of private markets at Hermes Investment Management, said: 'The disposal of Woolworth House follows a proactive asset management strategy being implemented at the asset, which has included regearing of leaseholds within the building. Capital from this sale will be redeployed into new acquisitions which present an opportunity for added value to be achieved.'
