The Dutch hotel chain was set up in 2008 by Mexx founder Rattan Chadha; their Director of Acquisition is Jasper Muller formerly of both Andersen and Deloitte. CitizenM secured the Holborn Viaduct site near Farringdon in January. The group, backed by Dutch civil service pension fund AGP Investments, entered into a joint venture with CHIL, the owners of 61-65 Holborn Viaduct and 37-41 Snow Hill, EC1, for the mixed-use project. CHIL will develop the office element of the scheme.

The development will consist of basement, ground and lower ground floor levels with eight upper office storeys and ten upper hotel levels. A contribution of £848,610 towards Crossrail will be required. Proposals also include 116,250 sq. ft. of offices which would complete the 172ft development, replacing the 83,000 sq. ft. existing building. The new scheme would also add 33,260 sq. ft. of space to the site.

A citizenM spokesman said: “The new citizenM hotel London St Paul’s will consist of 246 bedrooms and a vast public area on the ground floor. citizenM aims to start construction early 2013, with an expected opening post summer 2014.

“The architects created a light high tech structure with rich facades on both the Holborn viaduct and Snowhill. The lack of affordable luxury accommodation in the area will be a key selling point for citizenM in the area.”

The development will be the third of citizenM’s four UK sites, having opened a 198-bedroom hotel in Glasgow in 2010. A 192-bedroom Bankside hotel on Lavington Street, SE1 is due to open in the second quarter of this year. The hotelier is still in negotiations with Tower Hamlets council over its plans for a 370-bedroom, nine-storey hotel at Tower Hill House at 38-40 Trinity Square, EC3.

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A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said, “Mount Pleasant mail centre is at the heart of mail processing in London and Royal Mail is investing £32m in Mount Pleasant mail centre to bring the site up to World Class Mail standards. This includes the installation of new machines for processing and handling mail and to improve working conditions for our people.

“At the end of 2011, Camden and Islington Councils held a public consultation to explore what development might be possible on the parts of the Mount Pleasant site that Royal Mail no longer needs for its operations. A Planning Brief has now been agreed by the Councils which shows a substantial residential scheme on areas of the site that are surplus to Royal Mail’s operational requirements.”

It is one of a series of UK sites Royal Mail has been looking to dispose of as it raises funds and consolidates operations ahead of a potential privatisation. Royal Mail has a property portfolio of 35m sq. ft., most of which is on brownfield sites across the country.
The site is currently undergoing a £32m makeover to increase production, move operations and parking into the building from elsewhere – including major London sites in Wandsworth, Paddington, Fitzrovia and Bromley-by-Bow where it has also been progressing plans to dispose of the sites for alternative development. It is also proposing to sell a substantial development site next to Reading Station.

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The transaction completed on Friday for £166m, reflecting a yield of 4.1% – a new benchmark for buildings over £100m. WELPUT acquired the freehold interest in Stratton House, at 5 Stratton Street, in 2005 for £80m.It carried out an extensive refurbishment which was completed by Rolfe-Judd architects for £30 million in 2009 turning the building into a Grade A mixed development. A specially created penthouse flat was sold at a record price in 2010.

Offices in the mixed development were let at an average rent of £84 per sq. ft. The top rent achieved, to Egerton Capital, was £106 per sq. ft.
The Grade II landmark building, designed by William Curtis Green and built in 1929, is opposite Green Park and the Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly, and next to Devonshire House, situated in the heart of the Mayfair. It provides a total of 108,000 sq. ft. of prime mixed-use accommodation over basement, ground and seven upper floors and residential on the eighth floor and is let to 12 tenants including Premiership football team Manchester United’s London headquarters.

DTZ, which advised on the sale, has now been involved in more than 40% of investment transactions in the West End so far this year.
Head of West End Investment, Fergus Keane, said: “The West End is still suffering from a lack of stock although we predict pricing will continue to remain strong for the rest of the year, as we expect to see continued interest from Eurozone players either worried about the euro or an exodus from France given the recent election results.

DTZ and Strutt & Parker advised WELPUT, Savills acted for Sirosa.

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Play.com moved into 16 High Holborn from nearby Farringdon in March this year and will be joined by LinkShare this month, relocating from Tottenham Court Road. Together, they will occupy 80% of the building’s fourth floor, totalling 3,500 sq. ft.

Orega operates the five-storey centre of serviced offices at 16 High Holborn under a joint venture management agreement with the building’s owner. In conjunction with the high-quality air-conditioned offices, Orega offers a range of meeting rooms and support services, all conveniently located adjacent Chancery Lane underground station.

Other new clientele to the High Holborn business centre include Opus Recruitment Solutions, which has set up its first office in London; Silk Link Consultancy Services; Echelon Research; PSG Global Solutions; London IP and PMK Associates. Communications Company WCG has taken half of the fifth floor, a total of 1,990 sq. ft.

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The building offers over 70,000 sq. ft. of ‘Grade A’ flexible space over 11 floors. Tenants have the opportunity to secure floor plates of up to 5,700 sq. ft. with panoramic City views across central London on offer from the upper floors

The overhaul at 110 Cannon Street is the latest investment in the area adjacent Cannon Street Station, following the recent completions of Walbrook and Cannon Place alongside high profile headquarter relocations by Rothschild at nearby New Court, St Swithin’s Lane and Bloomberg at Walbrook Square.

Alex Turner, Fund Manager – Offices, USS, said: “We are pleased to be bringing to the market one of the first refurbished schemes of 2012. Given the current market situation and the quality, flexibility and location on offer at 110 Cannon Street, we are confident of strong interest from occupiers.”

William Beardmore-Gray Head of City Leasing at Knight Frank said: “Despite the challenging economic backdrop over the last few years, the City has seen consistently strong demand for smaller, quality units in a prime City Core location. 110 Cannon Street directly addresses this requirement.”

Moorevale are the development managers at 110 Cannon Street. The appointed agents are Knight Frank and Jones Lang LaSalle.

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Availability of Central London office space fell marginally in March from its previous two-year high and now stands at 16.3m sq. ft. Following a sustained period of decline, the amount of space under-offer increased in March to 1.83m sq.ft.; remaining below the long-term trend.Key transactions in March included: Push Button taking 47,560 sq.ft. at The Glasshouse, EC1; Savills signing for 31,023 sq.ft. at 33 Margaret Street, W1; and Hannover Re leasing 27,937 sqft at 10 Fenchurch Street, EC3.

Executive Director at CBRE, Emma Crawford, said: “With 201 deals, March saw more activity than both January and February combined. It is clear that the relatively positive macro-economic news of the past few weeks is filtering through to the market and the first increase in space under-offer this year, as well as the sustained level of active demand in the market, reinforces this sentiment.”

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The report shows that retailers expanded into a wide range of markets in 2011, with 74% of the countries included in the survey seeing at least one new retailer enter the market last year. Overall, the global footprint of retailers grew by 2.1%, a similar rate to 2010, demonstrating that retailers “continue to grow their cross-border businesses in spite of a challenging consumer environment”.

Attracting 55.6% of all international retail brands surveyed, London reclaims the outright number one position after sharing top spot with Dubai last year.

CBRE said London had benefited from a mini-boom in 2011 as tourist spending boosted a relatively robust local economy. It remains a key hub for retailers looking to expand into Europe. The UK as a whole also retains number one position as the most penetrated global country with 56.7% of retailers in the survey present there.

Peter Gold, head of EMEA Cross Border Retail, CBRE, said: “In the face of on-going economic uncertainty, which looks set to remain a factor throughout 2012, retailers have responded by seeking to de-risk their expansion activities, generally choosing markets like the UK that are regarded as safe havens.

“London is generally the first port of call for global retailers, but once they have established a presence in the capital, they are willing to extend their reach into other major UK cities, as well as major regional shopping centres such as Trafford Park, Meadowhall and Bluewater.”

London is the number one city targeted by US retailers with 64.7% operating at least one store there, closely followed by Dubai (61.2%) and Kuwait City (49.3%) in third position.

CBRE reports that with 53.8%, Dubai still holds considerable global pull but dropped into second position due to a handful of retailers exiting the market.New York (43.9%) remains in third position, while Moscow (43.2%) moves up the rankings following a number of new market entrants in 2011, joining Paris (43.2%) in fourth position ahead of Hong Kong (40.5%).

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Producer of brands such as UGG® Australia, TEVA, Sanuk®, TSUBO®, Ahnu® and MOZO®, Deckers has signed a 20-month agreement for approximately 5,000sq.ft. of offices.

Liberty House, designed by John White Jnr in1820 for Smith’s, the coach makers was redesigned by E.T and E.S Hall for Captain Stewart Liberty in 1925. It recently underwent internal refurbishment and is expected to again be modelled to a bespoke specification for the requirements of Deckers.

MWB’s general manager of Liberty House Jason Hill said: “It’s a wonderful space in probably the best location in the West End. Soho and Oxford Street are on the doorstep.

“Office space like this rarely comes on the market so we’re delighted to have a leading brand company such as Deckers in our business on a fairly long agreement.”

In addition, it was recently announced that Business Exchange has also signed transport specialist Keolis at its Kings Cross centre.

France’s largest transport group has taken 60 workstations’ worth of space within the 22,000 sq.ft. property to date.

Keolis has signed a 12 month contract which MWB said it was keen to extend. A representative from Keolis said: “Being centrally located near London’s main link to the continent was an absolute imperative. MWB were quick to understand our needs and have delivered a flexible accommodation solution.”

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Canadian investor and developer Oxford is one of a handful of parties to have bid on part or the whole of Hammerson’s office portfolio as consultations begin. The talks between Hammerson and Oxford are not exclusive, with Hammerson announcing last Thursday that it was evaluating “high levels” of interest in its London offices, signifying the properties may be sold quicker than initially estimated.

The buildings, which Hammerson has valued at £548.4m, include the firm’s headquarters at 10 Grosvenor Street, W1, and Stockley House, SW1. In the City of London, Hammerson owns 99 Bishopsgate, EC2, 10 Gresham Street, EC2, which it owns together with Canada Pension Plan. Their portfolio also includes DTZ’s headquarters at 125 Old Broad Street, EC2, and 1 Leadenhall Court, near Bank.

The REIT announced in February that it planned to sell its standing office portfolio in central London, which forms around 11% of its £5.7bn property portfolio, as it focuses on specialising in British and French retail.

With rents across its London office portfolio flat lining last year, Hammerson will redeploy the capital from the sale of assets into retail development in a bid to increase focus and size. The move was seen as a way for Hammerson to capitalise on the migration of shoppers towards large purpose-built developments.

It is expected that if the REIT does not receive a sufficient bid for the whole portfolio, selected assets will be vended piecemeal, as was originally planned, with 125 Old Broad Street and 99 Bishopsgate held over until 2013 when various asset management initiatives have been engaged to make the properties more attractive to investors.

Oxford Properties itself has a central London office and operates with a mandate to invest in pre-eminent trophy assets, with virtually no upper limit on what it can spend. Last summer, it completed its £142m purchase of a 50% stake in MidCity Place, Holborn.

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6-10 Andrew Street comprises 45,893 sq ft of office space arranged over lower ground, ground and seven upper floors and is situated next to Holborn Circus, EC4 and close to Chancery Lane. The building is currently let to tenants which include Canon UK Ltd, ET Group Services BV, Arcus Infrastructure Services LLP, Carter-Ruck Solicitors and Pinnacle Housing.

Barney Rowe, partner at Orchard Street, said: “We are pleased to have secured this highly reversionary investment. With current average passing rent of under £31 per sq. ft., we have identified significant potential to grow income, especially given its location in one of the most exciting areas of London, attracting a diverse range of high profile occupiers from the financial, corporate and professional sectors.

“We are confident that we will see strong rental growth, particularly on the back of Crossrail, the potential new Goldman Sachs campus development and New Street Square where rents have exceeded £55 per sq ft.”

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