The iconic office building owned by Legal & General Investment Management Real Asset (LGIMRA) and Mitsubishi Estate London Limited in London’s West End has been sold to Google for $1 billion (around £732 million).
In a statement, LGIMRA announced that the Central Saint Giles Limited Partnership – the asset manager’s 50:50 joint venture with Mitsubishi – had sold the Central Saint Giles office development to the tech giant, which is also one of the building’s existing tenants.
LGIMRA and Mitsubishi had developed and owned the asset for more than 10 years. The sale represents an exit from the joint venture vehicle for both investors.
“The sale is a strong sign of continued demand for the highest quality central London office space,” said Bill Hughes, head of real assets at LGIM. “It represents an excellent outcome for our investors, derived from consistently high-quality asset management by our team over the past decade, to deliver on the business plan for Central Saint Giles.”
“We are pleased to have concluded the deal off-market with Google, which knows the asset well and saw the potential to invest longer-term in an exceptional building,” he continued.
Situated adjacent to Tottenham Court Road underground station, the Central Saint Giles mixed-use development consists of three buildings surrounding a central, public piazza. The asset offers 408,000 square feet of office space with 25,000 sq ft of restaurants and cafes at ground floor level.
The building is highly sustainable, benefiting from an in-use BREEAM Excellent rating. At the western end of the site, two residential buildings contain a mix of 109 private and social apartments. The long leasehold interests of the residential buildings continue to be owned and managed by the existing owners.
“Mitsubishi Estate London has been involved with Central Saint Giles since the development phase, and this sale is the culmination of one of our flagship projects,” said Yuichiro Shioda, the firm’s managing director and chief executive officer. “Its acquisition by Google, a company renowned for occupying only the very best buildings, is a fitting legacy for one of the West End’s most successful and recognisable developments.”
