Savills Studley taps into NYC in bid to sell $1B London building

London-based Savills PLC, which acquired the New York-based commercial brokerage Studley Inc. earlier this year for $260 million, is putting the newly-minted company to the test with efforts to market and sell London’s Gherkin building.

A team from Savill’s London office, along with Deloitte Real Estate, was in New York last week on the hunt for potential investors in the Gherkin sales effort, the Wall Street Journal reported. The efforts to sell the iconic piece of London real estate — a deal expected to fetch at least $1 billion — come on the heels of the newly-minted company’s efforts to also market New York buildings overseas, such as Brooklyn’s 316 Bergen Street.

The Studley connection, Savills head of central London Stephen Down, who the company hired away from CBRE in 2003, told the Journal, “opened doors” that might otherwise have been closed to the London firm.

“With a deal of this size, you want to meet the people who make the decisions,” he told the paper in reference to the Gherkin sales push.

In recent years, Studley lagged behind New York commercial brokerages Eastdil Secured and CBRE — a position Savills Studley looks to reverse with the completion of the Gherkin building deal, Heller told the Journal. [WSJ] — Julie Strickland