(Updated on 7 December to add the financing).
Family-owned department store Fenwick has exchanged on the sale of its New Bond Street premises to investment firm Lazari Investments for £430 million for a mixed-use redevelopment.
The group confirmed it had made the “difficult” decision to sell the 181-year-old property to unlock major investment at its stores across the country, including flagships in Newcastle and Kingston-upon-Thames.
Simon Calver, chair of Fenwick, said in a statement: “This deal will enable the business to continue to serve communities in stores and online for many years to come.
“The sale has been a difficult decision for the Fenwick family, who are committed to providing the business with the means to thrive for the long term. Their support will enable the next stage of the journey for the Fenwick family business.”
It first emerged in February that Fenwick was marketing the prominent store on London's most exclusive shopping street to potential buyers including Sir Stuart Lipton in partnership with an unidentified investor, and the luxury group LVMH, which bought and refurbished the Paris department store La Samaritaine.
The family was on the brink of selling the entire business to Thai conglomerate Central Group a couple of years ago before the pandemic took hold. In December, Central agreed a £4 billion deal to buy rival UK department store Selfridges.
Fenwick began in 1882 and now operates nine stores across the UK. The New Bond Street department store began trading in 1891 and is one of the flagships in West End retail, and the only department store on Bond Street.
It has stores in Newcastle, York, Bracknell, Canterbury, Colchester, Kingston, Tunbridge Wells and at north London’s Brent Cross shopping centre.
Fenwick gained consent in January 2020 for a five-storey office extension and a part change of use from retail to offices at its the Bond Street address in a familiar story for London department stores, as Westminster councillors accepted “anything that can be done to help a store like Fenwick to survive and thrive should be welcomed”.
Lazari was advised by Michael Elliott. Fenwick was unrepresented. Cale Street provided the finance for Lazari.