Regis Fleet Street, a vehicle ultimately owned by a Qatari family investment portfolio, has completed close to 170,000 square feet of office prelets in three deals at its landmark redevelopment of the former European headquarters of Goldman Sachs on London's Fleet Street.
Regis Fleet Street lodged plans for the £120 million, 292,000-square-foot speculative redevelopment of Peterborough Court, 133 Fleet Street in a major commitment to the London office market during the pandemic in September 2021.
The property is an Art Deco landmark built in 1927 as the home of the Daily Telegraph. The newspaper moved out in 1987 as publications left Fleet Street for the likes of Docklands and Kensington. Investment bank Goldman Sachs took over the building on an £18 million a year lease that ran out in 2020.
Now law firm Morgan Lewis has committed to a prelet of 75,927 square feet across the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th floor.
UK financial services group Just Group has signed for 64,185 square feet across the fourth and fifth floor and Japanese investment bank Daiwa Capital has taken the 25,962 square feet sixth floor.
JLL and CBRE advised Regis Fleet Street.
Peterborough Court has been remodelled to create 292,000 square feet of Grade A workspace and ground floor retail across eleven floors. The property includes flexible floor plates of between 16,000 square feet and 33,000 square feet, with access to private terraces across four floors and public courtyard open space.
The £120 million investment programme for Peterborough Court is managed by Intense Capital, on behalf of RFS, the owner.
WeWork had been in talks to take on the building as it was set to be vacated by Goldman in what would have been its largest UK site. Those talks fell through in January 2020 after the US coworking group's failed public listing led it to call a virtual halt to its expansion programme.
Fleet Street Investments II, a Cayman Islands registered special purpose vehicle ultimately controlled by Qatari investors, bought the freehold interest in Peterborough Court and the adjoining Daniel House in 2012, knowing Goldman was pushing to create a major new campus elsewhere. The £264 million deal had a net initial yield of around 6.36%.
City planners approved Goldman Sachs’ plans for an 843,922-square-foot new campus in London in March 2013. Since then, Goldman Sachs has demolished the previous 13-storey Fleet Building at 40 Shoe Lane and Plumtree Court, EC4, and developed a nine-storey office building.
In 2011, Goldman bought Plumtree Court in a move which gave the investment bank the opportunity to create a mega campus given the proximity of the property to its Fleet Building.
(Updated on 14 February to correct development manager)