Goldman buys Vintners Place
Goldman Sachs’ real estate investing business has acquired the long leasehold of Vintners Place, EC4, for around £160m.
A different part of the bank issued a loan to the vendor, US-based investor Crescent Heights, in order to finance its purchase of the office block (pictured).
Located by Southwark Bridge on the north side of the River Thames, the building features a Nuffield health club and gym, as well as a 20m swimming pool and 277,270 sq ft of office space.
Goldman Sachs’ real estate investing business has acquired the long leasehold of Vintners Place, EC4, for around £160m.
A different part of the bank issued a loan to the vendor, US-based investor Crescent Heights, in order to finance its purchase of the office block (pictured).
Located by Southwark Bridge on the north side of the River Thames, the building features a Nuffield health club and gym, as well as a 20m swimming pool and 277,270 sq ft of office space.
US portfolio
Crescent Heights, which is better known for its US portfolio, purchased the building in 2015 for £160m, a net initial yield of 6%, from Downtown Properties and a consortium of Korean investors, including the Korea Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives and The Korean Teachers’ Credit Union.
The purchase was made using a £130m acquisition facility from Goldman Sachs that reflected a loan-to-value ratio of just over 80%, making it one of the most highly-leveraged loans in the London office market at that time of the cycle.
Goldman Sachs is understood to have subsequently syndicated the loan after the acquisition.
One of the building’s main tenants, financial services firm Jefferies, which currently occupies more than 100,000 sq ft, is moving to 120,000 sq ft across levels 11-15 at Brookfield tower, 100 Bishopsgate, EC2, once it completes construction.
Refurbishment
Goldman Sachs, which has just agreed the £1.2bn sale and leaseback of its new London headquarters with South Korea’s National Pension Service, is expected to pursue a comprehensive refurbishment of the building once Jefferies departs, before most likely selling it on.
Vintners Place was Crescent Heights’ second purchase in the UK after it acquired the Warner Brothers-occupied 98 Theobald’s Road, WC1, in 2009, which it subsequently sold to WELPUT in 2012 for £65m, representing a yield of 5.94%, according to Radius Data Exchange.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment. Crescent Heights has been contacted for comment.
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