UK real estate investor Praxis is in advanced talks to buy a large slice of Brindleyplace in Birmingham, one of the country's key city centre office campuses, from HSBC Alternative Investments, CoStar News can reveal.
Market sources suggested that there has been competitive bidding from a number of parties. The guide price is £195 million or a 7.25% yield.
CoStar News revealed last year that ACRE Capital Real Estate and JLL had been instructed on the sale of a key test of investor appetite for the most prime UK regional offices.
Praxis is a UK real estate investor and developer with around £1.2 billion in assets under management.
Hines UK was retained as the asset manager for buildings three, four, five, six and the Oozells building at nine Brindleyplace, when Hines Global and Lone Star sold the estate in 2017 to HSBC Alternative Investments. Also included in the sale is the Pavilion in the Square which is occupied by Costa Coffee.
Hines Global had a 60% stake and Lone Star 40% in the office-led campus, which is home to Deutsche Bank, Avison Young, Michael Page, Landmark Space, the Commonwealth Games and Deloitte.
Deutsche Bank occupies nearly 130,000 square feet at 5 Brindleyplace.
The headlease interest offered for sale comprises 811,665 square feet in total, including 525,777 square feet of offices with retail at ground floor, 41,568 square feet of retail and leisure accommodation in the Brunswick Arcade and Cafe in the Square and 244,320 square feet of car parks.
The buildings form part of the overall canalside Brindleyplace development in the heart of Birmingham, which comprises 11 prime office buildings, retail and leisure amenities, tree-lined streets and three public squares.
The campus is one of Birmingham’s major business and leisure destinations with a business community of over 8,000 people.
Lone Star acquired its share in the offices at the end of 2014 as part of the £1 billion deal for Moorfield's legacy fund assets. Moorfield and Hines bought the five buildings from the Brindleyplace Partnership for £190 million in 2010.
Matt Long, head of tenant engagement and placemaking, Brindleyplace, said in a statement: "We are pleased to have instructed real estate advisors JLL and Acre Capital Real Estate to bring six properties at Brindleyplace, one of the UK’s most successful office-led mixed-use campuses, to the market. Well-established and regarded as an outstanding destination, Brindleyplace offers an exceptional opportunity in a prime regional market, which we believe will attract significant interest from the investor community.”