LONDON, UK: Helical Plc has exchanged contracts on the sale of the single asset company, Farringdon East (Jersey) Limited, which owns the long leasehold interest in Kaleidoscope, Lindsey Street, EC1 to Chinachem Group at a disposal price of £158.5m reflecting a capital value of £1,789 psf and a marginal premium to book value.
The 150 year lease from Transport for London was granted in 2018 and has a head rent geared to 10% of contracted rents. Completion is due to take place in ten days.
The six storey 88,580 sq ft office building sits above the Farringdon East Crossrail Station and is occupied in its entirety by TikTok, the popular short form video hosting service owned by Bytedance, who took a 15 year lease in March 2021 at £7,633,053 per annum (an average rent in excess of £86 psf).
The PLP designed scheme is accredited BREEAM Excellent, WiredScore Platinum and provides a 5,000 sq ft roof terrace together with high quality end of journey facilities and features integrated artwork by Dutch artists De Makers Van.
Matthew Bonning-Snook, Property Director at Helical, commented: “Kaleidoscope was the first over station development to complete on the Elizabeth Line and we were able to attract one of the world’s fastest growing tech businesses due to its striking design, highly accessible location, excellent amenities and strong environmental credentials.
We will now seek to recycle the proceeds from the sale into delivering new highly sustainable ‘best-in-class’ Central London office schemes, where occupier demand remains strong.”
Donald Choi, Executive Director and CEO of Chinachem Group, commented: “We’re delighted to have acquired Kaleidoscope successfully as it is located in one of London’s best performing sub-markets with impressive rental growth. We intend to hold this property for long-term investment.
“Having now made our London entrance, we will incrementally increase our exposure in gateway cities of other major developed markets in order to move further forward our diversification objectives and build a long-term resilient income stream. However, Hong Kong still remains our home and the core market of our business operations.”
Helical were advised by JLL and Chinachem were advised by Deloitte and Ingleby Trice.