(Watch for GlobeSt.com's exclusive MIPIM video interview with AXA chief investment officer Dennis Lopez as a followup to this story next week.)
LONDON—AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has sealed a deal to buy a prime office building in the City of London for more than $700 million (£472 M). AXA lead the acquisition of the Ropemaker Place building on behalf of three clients—one from Europe and two from Asia. The British Land Company PLC was the seller.
Located in near the new Crossrail entrance at Moorgate train and Underground station, Ropemaker Place was completed in May 2009 to an Arup Associates design and is a 20-story 602,000 sq ft building providing 571,000 sq ft of Grade A office space with some mixed use. The office space is leased to investment grade tenants including Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi and Macquarie Bank for an average of 14 years, the asset produces a current income of around $36 million (£24 M) annually, and that is expected to grow to $41 million (£27.5 M) by September of 2015.
Ropemaker Place has a BREEAM Excellent sustainability rating and is the first building in the City of London to achieve a LEED Platinum pre-certification for sustainability.
The transaction is AXA Real Estate's second major central London office acquisition on behalf of clients in the past six months.
AXA Real Estate led an investor advisory team which also included Nabarro, Deloitte and Strutt & Parker. The British Land Company PLC was advised by SJ Berwin and Jones Lang LaSalle.
Commenting on the acquisition, Anne Kavanagh, Global Head of Asset Management at AXA Real Estate, said: “This acquisition of Ropemaker Place is a further demonstration of our ability both to source core investment-grade product across Europe and to bring together international institutional investment partners with similar investment criteria into club deals and joint ventures.
“This transaction also highlights our commitment to structuring innovative new real estate investment products for our clients.”
Huw Stephens, Head of UK Transactions at AXA Real Estate, added: “Ropemaker Place has all the solid real estate fundamentals that investors require in a City of London office asset: core location, resilient investment grade cashflows, efficiency in use and the potential of rental growth from a low base, all in a high quality modern building. We expect the asset to meet the investment objectives required by our investment partners. This transaction also underlines our long term belief in the prospects of the London office market, where earlier this year we added to our three developments in the City of London when we agreed to forward fund a large 55% pre-let office development in King's Cross."
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
David Phillips
David Phillips is a Chicago-based freelance writer and consultant with more than 20 years experience in business and community news. He also has extensive reporting experience in the food manufacturing industry for national trade publications.
