The private equity real estate company, Evans Randall Investors, has completed the purchase of Thavies Inn House at 3-4 Holborn Circus, London EC1, from Marcol for €37.1m (£33m).
Evans Randall & JR Capital are investing in the project alongside one of JR Capital’s prominent Middle Eastern clients.
The property of 4691.6m² presents an annual rent of €1.8m (£1.6m). Evans Randall will seek to work the income over the near term with the underlying potential for the redevelopment of the building in the longer term. The site could ultimately provide for a scheme in excess of 6967.7m².
Purchased with a long leasehold from the City of London, the 1950s office building sits at a landmark Midtown location on Holborn Circus. The transaction aligns with Evans Randall’s strategy to transform older office buildings into multi-occupier, contemporary workspaces suitable for companies in the creative, media, technology, professional or financial sectors. First off the blocks next month is the redevelopment of the recently acquired 90 Fetter Lane.
Evans Randall Investors has undertaken more than €8.9bn (£8bn) of real transactions and has successfully invested in a substantial number of London assets, managing them to achieve their full potential through repositioning, refurbishment, tenant re-engineering and refinancing.
John Collier-Wright, Founder and Chief Executive of JR Capital said: “We are pleased that this exciting transaction has completed. Thavies Inn provides a rare opportunity to development a landmark office building next to the new Goldman Sachs HQ and existing Sainsbury’s and Deloitte global HQ’s. The temporary uncertainty in the market this year has created some attractive buying opportunities. There remains strong appetite from the Gulf to invest into UK real estate due to the political and economic instability in the region, a slight softening of prices in the UK over the past 12 months and the current weak sterling which represents a circa 20% discount to the long-term average. This is our third investment post Brexit and we intend to deploy a further €56.21m (£50m) over the next few months whilst many of the UK funds and institutions have their foot on the brake”.
BNP Paribas Real Estate and Paul Hastings advised Evans Randall on the purchase. Michael Elliott acted for Marcol.
