Great Portland Estates plc has exchanged contracts to acquire Oxford House, 76 Oxford Street, W1, a prominent freehold property at the junction of Oxford Street and Newman Street, adjoining GPE’s 2.3 acre Rathbone Place redevelopment site.
Simultaneously, GPE and Land Securities have entered into new rights of light and rights of way arrangements between GPE’s development at 73/89 Oxford Street, W1 (directly opposite Oxford House on the south side of Oxford Street), and Land Securities’ adjoining property at 7 Soho Square, W1. The combined price for these two transactions is £91.50 million (approx. €105.25 million).
Oxford House is a prominent, eleven storey, office and retail building totalling approximately 79,000 ft² (approx. 7,340 m²). It is fully let with three office tenants and five retail tenants, generating a total current rent of £3.22 million per annum and a net initial yield of 3.5% rising to c.6.0% post a light refurbishment and re-letting. The weighted average unexpired lease term is under a year and the rents are low for this location at £26.17 per ft² on the office accommodation and £238 per ft² Zone A on the retail. Earlier this year, Land Securities submitted a planning application to extend the existing property and convert the upper floors to 89 private residential apartments with a reconfiguration of the existing ground and basement accommodation to incorporate retail on the first floor. The proposed scheme totals 114,700 ft² (approx. 10,655 m²).
The east end of Oxford Street will see significant redevelopment over the next decade, including the opening of the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail Station, the entrance for which is opposite Oxford House. GPE has a leading role to play in this regeneration through its ownership of three key sites with the potential for more than 600,000 ft² (approx. 55,740 m²) of new, mixed-use space.
Source: Great Portland Estates
