The former Mayfair offices of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) have been sold to one of India’s biggest real estate companies for a reported £155m.
Indiabulls Real Estate acquired the 87,444sq ft building at 22 Hanover Square from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership, now part of Aberdeen Asset Management. It put the block on the market two months ago through consultants H2SO with an initial asking price of £130m.
It’s understood Indiabulls fought off close competition from the Jersey-based West End of London Property Unit Trust and the North American TIAA Henderson to clinch the deal.
“This building has huge potential for redevelopment,” explained Sameer Gehlaut, chairman of the Indiabulls Group. “The building’s location in prime Mayfair adjoining Bond Street is truly exceptional and Hanover Square will become arguably London’s ‘best connected’ square when the new Bond Street Crossrail station opens in 2018.”
One of the new line’s station entrances will be on the north-west corner of Hanover Square, less than 50 metres from No 22. Indiabulls intends to refurbish and upgrade the property in time for the Crossrail network opening in 2018.
John Olney at H2SO — which has recently become part of Colliers International — commented: “Freehold assets of this quality and scale are rare in Mayfair, and there was a very high level of investor interest in the building. Four parties were selected from the first round of bidding to participate in the final round, with Indiabulls Real Estate emerging as the highest bidder in a closely contested process.”
Indiabulls Real Estate is one of the largest property companies in India with development projects spread across high-end office and commercial complexes, premium residential developments, mega townships, retail spaces, hotel and resorts, state of the art special economic zones and infrastructure development.
Just four years after its launch Indiabulls has a worldwide land bank of more than 1,000 acres and has already delivered 3.3m sq ft of floorspace across all sectors worth more than one billion pounds. It currently has 31 ongoing global projects totalling 72.86m sq ft.
Darryl Tidd is investment director at Aberdeen Asset Management’s property team. “We took the strategic decision to sell this prime office building and lock-in the strong performance generated from the asset and believe the sale will be well received by the market and give us the opportunity to re-cycle the proceeds of this investment for the benefit of the fund,” he explained.
JLL occupied the entire Hanover Square building for an annual rent of £5.5m, which computes to £62.90 per sq ft and is well below the prevailing level for equivalent space in Mayfair. Its lease was due to expire in 2017 and the company is in the process of vacating its former offices and will consolidate its London staff from various sites at 30 Warwick Street in Soho.
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