In a move with good news for a change the Alternative Investments Group Blackstone began works to create nearly one quarter of a million square foot HQ office in London’s Berkeley Square ( featured here in June 2023 ). The £1 billion plus investment is manna from heaven at a time of great uncertainty in the Commercial Property Sector.
In the early 1980s I remember asking Stuart Lipton , the renowned developer what research he had undertaken before creating Broadgate in the City of London. He stared back at me blankly and frankly in those Wild West days research into demand was never conducted as finger in the air was the norm. In due course Stuart and his partner Godfrey Bradman went bust even as Broadgate was filled with Big Bang tenants the funding of their project was wrong.
Now we see the occupier and developer in one role which makes sense or what you expect from a Group trading in 88 countries. Previously Lansdowne House and built by Legal and General the property then was sold to the Sultan of Brunei and was the HQ of those great marketing gurus of the early 1980s Saatchi & Saatchi.
Masters of the Universe also get it wrong for yesterday they had to pull the sale of an office building in Canary Wharf as values there have dropped and vacancy of that project is set to rise at 16% or double the quantum in Mayfair. Remember Mayfair is on the Monopoly Board , Canary Wharf isn’t. There as in the mine the Canary is struggling and another location where the original developers ( Reichman of Canada ) floundered.
At the end of the day the Nightingale on Berkeley Square sings on whilst the Canary at the Wharf is in trouble.
Blackstone have nearly 1 trillion dollar under management and their vote to stay in Britain is great news for Britain ( we need it ). Blackstone are no fools and they’ll breathe life back into the Canary by merging with one of those REIT Public Companies. There’s always an escape hatch in the birds nest of property.
qbitblogger 