£36M Covent Garden property swap

Co Operative Insurance Society advised by AXA REIM and Hanover Green, has sold 1-3 Henrietta Street / 22 Southampton Street to Capital & Counties to complement their existing Covent Garden Estate holdings.

Cap Co acquired the Estate in August 2006 for £421 million and they have since added a number of properties to it including the Royal Opera House retail units. In addition to the new Apple Store and specialist weekly markets, Burberry, Polo Ralph Lauren and Kurt Geiger have recently been signed up as part of Cap Co’s long term strategy to improve the destination offer of the Market Piazza.

As part of the transaction, CIS acquired 1-3 Long Acre / 20 Garrick Street. Both properties are freeholds and each property had a purchase price of £18 million. 1-3 Henrietta Street is highly reversionary and single let to LloydsTSB Bank Plc at £650,000 pa on a lease expiring in June 2011.

The upper floors are sub let as offices. The basement is let to Pizza Hut. CIS acquired the property which provides some 17,660 sq ft via a sale and leaseback in 1995. 1-3 Long Acre is a 1997 redevelopment and provides some 22,379 sq ft of mixed office and retail space. The offices are let to Executive Offices Group to December 2012 and the A3 unit is let to Novus Leisure to March 2022. The current income is £1,230,200 pa.

Hanover Green put together the swap deal on behalf of AXA REIM / CIS and CAPITAL & COUNTIES.