German fund spends £235m on Kings Place
GERMAN fund manager Deka has bought the home of the Guardian newspaper in King’s Cross for £235m, property agent Savills said yesterday.
Savills, which acted for Deka, said Deka Immobilien’s open-ended fund WestInvest InterSelect bought the seven-storey Kings Place building from developer Peter Millican in an off-market transaction.
Property consultant DTZ represented the seller.
Kings Place, which also houses two concert halls and art galleries, has about 300,000 square feet of office space. It is also the head office of railways operator Network Rail.
Deka is among a number of cash-rich foreign investors that have stepped up their pursuit of top quality properties in central London over the past year.
It was first reported that the building was up for sale in October.
Kings Place was designed by architecture practice Dixon Jones, a partnership established in the 1980s when its founders won a mandate to redevelop the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
It has also designed new wings for the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery, and redeveloped the Exhibition Road area in South Kensington.
Developer Peter Millican gifted a 99-year lease over the music facilities when the building was completed, renting it to the Kings Place Foundation for a nominal rent.
King’s Cross has been a hive of construction activity in recent years, with Google and BNP Paribas set to move into the area.