Landsec, the major UK real estate investment trust, is finalising the sale of a significant development opportunity on Tottenham Court Road in London's West End, CoStar News understands.
CBRE has been quietly marketing the freehold interest in the 0.7-acre site at 6-17 Tottenham Court Road seeking around £60 million, before going to best bids at the end of last year.
Market sources said NorthStar Capital has gone under offer to buy the asset. The group will be likely working with a joint venture partner. It has recently bought 105 Jermyn Street for around £27.75 million for Zero Carbon Space, a joint venture with LandCap that is seeking to develop high end sustainable offices.
The property comprises 62,139 square feet of retail and restaurant accommodation with a 66 metre frontage to Tottenham Court Road. It is fully let to seven tenants at a passing rent of £3,572,528 a year, reflecting £57.49 per square foot with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 1.2 years.
Investors are likely to be most interested in the opportunity to reposition the property and increase massing by 65%, subject to planning consents. The building sits a short walk from Derwent London's major redevelopment above Tottenham Court Road station, One Oxford Street, on the back of the arrival of the Elizabeth line.
Landsec has been pressing on with a strategy to sell around £4 billion of mature assets including London offices and assets in sectors it sees as non-core, such as retail parks and leisure, and reinvesting in growth opportunities.
In its half-year results published in November, the REIT reported that after three years implementing its 2020 strategy it has sold £2.5 billion of mostly largely, single-let City and Docklands offices and invested £1.9 billion in profitable development, retail and mixed-use urban schemes.
In a statement Landsec said: “We’ve said consistently since the launch of our new strategy in October 2020 that we are considering various acquisition and disposal opportunities that make financial and strategic sense to the business. Unfortunately we’re not able to comment on individual opportunities or market speculation at this time.”
CBRE declined to comment and NorthStar did not reply to a request for comment.