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Blackstone quietly trying to sell pieces of the London skyline for over $1B
Even after the $376M sale of Lacon House, private equity giant has two properties on market for combined $893M
It sure looks like Blackstone Group is embarking on something of a sales spree in London.
With the ink barely dry on the $376 million sale of the Lacon House office building, Blackstone has quietly put another London office tower on the market, according to Bloomberg.
The private equity giant hired brokers from HFF and Savills Plc to market Cannon Bridge House at 25 Downgate Hill in the City of London. Blackstone wants $330 million for the development.
The property, with about 283,000 square feet of office space between multiple buildings, is leased to Natixis Capital Partners, IG Index, Winterflood Capital and others. Blackstone scooped up the recently-renovated property up in 2015 for about $244 million by acquiring B-level debt. In November, Blackstone signed online restaurant delivery company Deliveroo to the River Building in the development, inking a deal worth 50,0000 square feet.
According to Bloomberg, Blackstone is also looking for about $563 million for the Katharine Docks in London. Blackstone acquired the historic docks, as well as accompanying restaurants and offices, in 2014 when it acquired Max Property for $591 million.
Even with the looming concern of Brexit, the pound’s weakness and the gap between real estate and government-bond yields has spurred global investors to buy up London office properties in recent months.
In March, the sale of the “Cheesegrater” skyscraper to Chinese investors for $1.5 billion set a record, but it was quickly broken by the $1.7 billion sale of the “Walkie Talkie” skyscraper at 20 Fenchurch Street to a Hong Kong food conglomerate.
Blackstone is the world’s largest real estate manager, and its assets grew 6 percent in 2016 to $160 billion. [Bloomberg] — James Kleimann