British Land Win Ropemaker Bidding War

British Land have won a bidding war paying a stonking £125 million for the Ropemaker Place site on the edge of the City of London in the London Borough of Islington. The site was put on the market as part of the attempts by Deutsche Bank to provide some liquidity following the freezing of the £4 billion Grundbesitz-Invest Fund at Christmas.

The site was given an original price of about £100 million by agent, Jones Lang Lasalle, in January but the gradually escalated in an auction that also involved Greycoat, Helical Bar, Multiplex and Tishman Speyer.

Planning permission exists on site for a 93 metre tall Gensler Associates designed tower with a substantial lower-rise podium attached to it. The building once complete with contain 46,890 square metres of space over 23 floors that are served by 11 lift shafts. As with most new office proposals for London there is little parking, a mere 23 spaces but this should prove a small issue.

In terms of location, the site stands next to the Citypoint and only a short walk from the Moorgate underground station making it a prime piece of real estate within the existing cluster of buildings that lie along London Wall.

From the perspective of British Land, Ropemaker Place fits in nicely with a possible development schedule that allows them to bring a tall building online every year from 2007 onwards. They already have Broadgate Tower under construction with the Willis Building having started the previous year. 2008 can see the Leadenhall Building start once the current site is cleared, this however gives them a gap of a year that can now be filled by Ropemaker Place should the market demand exist for the space within meaning a 2009 completion.

This area is becoming one of the hotbeds of tall building development in the City. Shepard Robson had previously designed a 200 metre tall slanting office building for the site whilst there are plans for a new 30 floor residential building over the road at the Barbican.