Helical realises £71.4m selling 50% share in City office block
London-listed developer Helical has sold its half share in the so-called JJ Mack Building at 33 Charterhouse Street in the City of London, to its joint venture partner, AshbyCapital, for £139.2 million. The deal values the building at about £280 million.
Helical said its £71.4 million proceeds after debt will be used to fund the company’s development pipeline.
The 10-storey JJ Mack Building, which comprises 200,611 sq ft (18,637 sq m) of offices, 9,172 sq ft (852 sq m) of terrace space and 5,474 sq ft (508 sq m) of ground floor retail space, was completed in September 2022 and named after the market trader who occupied the site in the 1940’s.
The building achieved a score of 96.4% under the BREEAM 2018 guidelines, the highest score in the UK for an office building, won the 2021 SECBE Digital Construction Award and has EPC A and NABERS 5 Star certifications.
The JJ Mack Building currently has a rent roll of £17.4 million and is 90% let to six office tenants, including Sainsbury’s and Partners Group. One 20,000 sq ft (1,858 sq m) office floor remains to be leased. Three retail units are let to Sainsbury’s and E-on Next.
“This sale is very material to Helical as it releases sufficient cash to ensure that the equity requirements of our entire exciting development pipeline, totalling over 685,000 sq ft [63,638 sq m] of offices, and a 429 unit purpose build student accommodation scheme, are now fully funded,” Helical’s chief executive Matthew Bonning-Snook said.
“We are already making good progress in delivering this, with construction underway on three new office schemes (100 New Bridge Street EC4, Brettenham House WC2 and 10 King William Street EC4) and plans progressing at our future development projects at Paddington and Southwark.”
“We will continue to recycle our portfolio, as market conditions allow, as we seek to grow the current pipeline whilst focusing our near term attention on the delivering best-in-class space into a supply constrained 2026 market.”
