City House acquisition extends Bruntwood office offer in Leeds

CONFIDENCE in Yorkshire's commercial property market looks to be improving with the completion of deals totaling more than £50m.

The acquisition of City House by Bruntwood for an undisclosed sum brings the family-owned company’s total office space in Leeds to 390,000 sq ft, spread across the buildings of West One, Hepworth Point, West Gate and 14 King Street.

Comprising 120,000 sq ft of office space over 12 floors, City House is situated above Leeds train station and has been stripped out by the building’s previous owners.  

Bruntwood plans to work closely with Network Rail and Leeds City Council to regenerate the building, incorporating Grade A office space and serviced office space to accommodate all sizes of business, and in addition there will be meeting and conferencing spaces for hire.

Craig Burrow, Bruntwood’s head of sales and development in Leeds, said: “Bruntwood are delighted with the purchase of City House and we are looking forward to transforming and managing the building in the long term.

“We believe in investing in the fabric of the cities we operate in and wherever possible, we recycle buildings instead of knocking them down and starting again. This is part of our company ethos to avoid waste and help create sustainable cities.

“We’re looking forward to playing a greater role in Leeds ’s property market and we’re keen to acquire more space in the future.

Bruntwood offer flexible leases and a wide variety of office space, but expanding further in Leeds will provide our customers with the additional flexibility to grow within the Bruntwood portfolio.”

Meanwhile, UK Islamic bank Gatehouse has acquired One Sovereign Street, the home of BT’s regional headquarters in Leeds, for £40.17m. Real estate adviser DTZ acted for Gatehouse Bank on the acquisition of One Sovereign Street, previously owned by Royal Mail Pension Fund.

The Grade A office space, totalling in excess of 139,000 sq ft, is let on a single lease to BT until September 2020. The deal represents a net initial yield of 6.75% and one of the region’s largest transactions of 2010.

Built in 2002, One Sovereign Street is situated close to Leeds railway station and re[presents Gatehouse's third real estate acquisition in the UK.

Gatehouse is a fully Shariah compliant investment bank based in the City of London bringing fully researched investment opportunities to its target investor base.

Adam Cavanagh, vice president of Real Estate at Gatehouse, said: "This is a major transaction, particularly in a recovering market, and makes a significant addition to the high quality portfolio that we have established for our clients over the last six months. It is clear that the appetite from Islamic investors for prime real estate investments remains unabated, and we look forward to working on further acquisitions in the near future.”

Published with permission of TheBusinessDesk.com

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