Blackstone confirms £268m London investment

Land Securities has exchanged contracts to sell its 95 percent stake in Times Square, London to the New York-based private equity real estate giant.

New York-headquartered private equity real estate firm, The Blackstone Group, has confirmed it will acquire UK property company Land Securities’ 95 percent stake in Times Square, London for £268.4 million (€365 million; $401 million).

The acquisition of Times Square, which is expected to complete at the end of July, will be the firm’s fourth in London as part of the Blackstone’s core-plus strategy, and closely follows its £320 million acquisition of 125 Old Broad Street from Brookfield Property Partners last July.

The firm collected $1.7 billion for its first dedicated core-plus fund for an initial close in mid-November last year, approximately four months after officially launching the fund in July.

The 380,000 square foot office building at 160-162 Queen Victoria Street is fully let to six office tenants, including Bank of New York Mellon and law firm Dechert, until 2023.

“Times Square fits the core plus strategy extremely well as a high quality, well-leased asset in the centre of a global gateway city,” commented Anthony Myers, head of real estate for Europe at Blackstone.

Strutt & Parker acted on behalf of Land Securities and BNP Paribas advised Blackstone.