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| CAA House, London, England |
LONDON, ENGLAND –– HFF
Real Estate Limited (HFF) announces the £90.8 million acquisition financing of CAA
House, two interconnected office buildings totaling 222,269 square feet in
London’s Covent Garden, Midtown submarket.
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| Michael Kavanau |
The HFF team worked on behalf of the borrower,
Seaforth Land Holdings Limited, to secure the five-year loan through
Blackstone’s Real Estate Debt Strategies division. In conjunction with
this acquisition loan, Blackstone is also extending financing toward the
refurbishment of the property.
CAA House comprises two buildings at 1 Kemble
Street and 45-59 Kingsway that are connected via a two-story link bridge on the
first and second floors.
Originally developed as “Space House” in 1969,
the properties were listed in 2015 as “Grade II” by English Heritage. 1
Kemble Street is a 16-storey, 138,556-square-foot building and 45 Kingsway has
62,607 square feet within eight storeys.
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| Edward Daubeney |
The property offers parking for 22 vehicles and
common basements offering 21,106 square feet of ancillary accommodation.
Located in the dynamic Covent Garden submarket, CAA House is close to many of
London’s iconic entertainment and cultural offerings, including Leicester
Square, Soho, Covent Garden Piazza, Royal Opera House, Somerset House, the
British Museum and the Theatre District.
Additionally, Covent Garden has become a
world-renowned shopping and leisure destination attracting more than 45 million
visitors per year. CAA House is well served by transport being situated
close to Holborn, Covent Garden and Temple tube stations as well as the new
Elizabeth Line station at Tottenham Court Road set to open this year.
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| Michael Zerda |
Tyler Goodwin,
CEO of Seaforth Land, comments: “As a value investor and a fiduciary,
Blackstone’s facility helps us generate a compelling risk adjusted return while
maintaining a conservative loan to value ratio.
"Blackstone and HFF have been a pleasure to
work with, particularly given the exceptionally competitive market for this
off-market transaction.
"They immediately recognised our vision for
place-making with unique and creative office and retail space. We’re
looking forward to returning ‘Spacehaus’ to the London office market as a
celebration of mid-century modern Brutalist architecture.”
Michael Zerda,
Managing Director and Head of Europe for Blackstone Real Estate Debt
Strategies, said: “This transaction is an excellent example of Blackstone’s
ability to provide senior loans against high quality real estate, in support of
high calibre borrowers at competitive terms.
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| Covent Garden |
"CAA House is a prominent landmark in London’s
Covent Garden, and Seaforth Land sought a low-leverage yet flexible lending
solution which fits squarely within our investment parameters.”
The HFF debt placement team included senior
managing director Michael Kavanau and managing director Edward Daubeney.
Seaforth Land is a real estate operating partner
for professional and institutional investors. We focus exclusively on
Central London commercial property investing across the risk-return spectrum
while placing a priority on delivering superior net-to-investor returns with
fiduciary care.
Seaforth’s in-house capabilities start with
proprietary macro and micro research and cover the entire asset lifecycle, from
acquisitions, asset management, planning, design, development and
dispositions.
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| Leicester Square |
Our specialisation, world-class team, and
in-depth market knowledge gain us access to off-market investments and help us
to make better informed investment decisions for our own capital and that of
our partners.
Blackstone (NYSE: BX) is one of the world's
leading investment firms. Blackstone seeks to create positive economic impact
and long-term value for its investors, the companies it invests in, and the
communities in which it works.
Blackstone does this by using extraordinary people and flexible
capital to help companies solve problems. Blackstone's asset management
businesses, with over $450 billion in assets under management, include
investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and
equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a
global basis.
Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on
Twitter @Blackstone.
For more information, please contact:
KRISTEN MURPHY
HFF Director,
Public Relations
(617)
338-0990
