Blackstone Acquire Office Building in London for $400m

Land Securities has exchanged contracts to sell its 95% stake in Times Square, London, EC4, to real estate funds managed by Blackstone for £268.4 million. Completion will be at the end of July.

The 380,000 sq ft office building at 160-162 Queen Victoria Street is fully let to six office tenants, including Bank of New York Mellon and law firm Dechert, until 2023.

Colette O’Shea, Managing Director, London Portfolio at Land Securities, said: “We’ve recently carried out some lease regearing activity at Times Square, and its sale reflects our strategy of recycling capital into our significant development programme.”

Anthony Myers, Head of Real Estate Europe at Blackstone, said: “This is our fourth investment in London as part of Blackstone Property Partners’ Core strategy, following the most recent acquisition of 125 Old Broad Street.  Times Square fits the Core strategy extremely well as a high quality, well-leased asset in the centre of a global gateway city.”

Strutt & Parker acted on behalf of Land Securities and BNP Paribas advised Blackstone.