HB Reavis debuts on the London development market with acquisition of 33 King William Street for €75 million
London, 5 December 2013 – HB Reavis, the leading commercial property developer in Central and Eastern Europe, today announces that it has completed the acquisition of 33 King William Street, a prime development site in the heart of London’s financial district, the City of London, for €75 million.
HB Reavis, the leading commercial property developer in Central and Eastern Europe, today announces that it has completed the acquisition of 33 King William Street, a prime development site in the heart of London’s financial district, the City of London, for €75 million. With views of the River Thames, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Shard, the site is only meters away from the Bank of England and directly on London Bridge. The acquisition is the company’s first in the UK and marks the beginning of its expansion to the London office market.
The existing building on the site is fully rented until June 2014 to BlackRock, the world’s premier asset manager. Upon expiration of the lease, HB Reavis intends to commence demolition of the current building, with construction beginning immediately thereafter on a speculative basis.
The site has planning consent for a new 21,345 sq m Grade A office building, which will be completed in the second half of 2016. The new nine-storey building was designed by John Robertson Architects. HB Reavis was advised by Knight Frank and Norton Rose Fulbright.
“We see this project as a unique opportunity, with an exceptional office building in an excellent location. Our intention is to continue investment in additional high-quality development opportunities in London into 2014. We look forward to establishing our company as an active contributor to London’s world class real estate community ” said Tomaš Jurdák, Director of HB Reavis UK.
Throughout its 20-year history, HB Reavis has built the leading position on the commercial real estate market in Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. From 1993, HB Reavis delivered more than 670,000 sq m of leasable area, including nine significant office projects, four shopping centres and five logistics centres. The Company employs a fully-integrated business model, which includes construction management, leasing, asset management, and investment management.
HB Reavis’ current development portfolio comprises over 1.2m sqm of leasable area, of which more than 160,000 sq m is under construction and more than one million sq m of leasable area is at the planning or permit stage. HB Reavis leases its premises to first-tier tenants including P&G, T-mobile, AT&T, SwissRe, Unilever and KPMG, and sold its projects to international investors such as Heitman, Unibail-Rodamco and Generali.
“We have recently made a strategic decision to enter the commercial development market in London, as we strongly believe in the market’s fundamentals. Our plan here is to apply key elements of our successful integrated business model, building up a robust development portfolio and a strong local professional team” said Radim Římánek, Member of the Board of HB Reavis Group responsible for the UK business.
