LaSalle, Trilogy buy €240m London docklands asset for refurb

LaSalle Investment Management has created a partnership with Trilogy Property Advisers, a London-based property firm, to acquire East India Dock in London from Criterion for £170 mln (€240 mln).

The vendor is London-based property company Criterion Capital.

Built in 1993, East India Dock is a 593,233 sq ft (55,000 m2) office campus with retail and leisure amenities and 471 car parking spaces that is situated on a 6.4-acre island site in the London Docklands. It is comprised of four office buildings with a maximum height of nine storeys.

While existing plans for the site included a comprehensive redevelopment for residential use, LaSalle and Trilogy also intends to refurbish and reposition East India Dock as an alternative for occupiers priced out of traditional office locations. The two partners aims to provide 'high quality office space at competitive rental values from £30 per square foot'. They have not ruled out the inclusion of residential within the site’s overall mix.

The site is also expected to benefit from the introduction of the Crossrail train line to the Docklands in 2018, which should accelerate the trend of businesses moving beyond traditional locations.

'East India Dock is 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,' said Chris Lewis, head of Transaction Support, LaSalle Investment Management.

East India Dock is currently multi-let to a variety of office tenants with a current passing rent of around £20 per square foot and a weighted average unexpired lease term of under three years.

LaSalle was advised by Allsop and Hall Kemp; Criterion by Savills and Michael Elliot.