CBRE appointed to manage 194,000 sq ft investment by ...

CBRE, the global property advisor, has been appointed by Northwood Investors LLC to property manage 90 Long Acre, the 194,000 sq ft landmark office building in the heart of Covent Garden, London.

The 1.21 acre island site provides Grade A office accommodation to a number of high profile tenants. The 8 storey building benefits from a double height reception, 12 private roof terraces and an internal courtyard.

CBRE will be responsible for the day-to-day property management of the building and will work alongside Northwood, and their appointed advisors, after winning the competitive tender to manage the property last year following submission of a successful proposal.

90 Long Acre became Northwood’s second investment in London, in addition to 20 Gracechurch Street, a 17-story Class A office building in the EC3 submarket, which Northwood acquired in January 2013. More recently, in December 2013, Northwood made its third central London investment with the acquisition of Finsbury Dials, a 141,196 sq ft office building in London’s financial district. Since inception in 2006, the privately-held real estate advisor Northwood has invested in a total of seven European real estate assets and raised approximately $3.6 billion of capital within this time.

The development adds to CBRE’s existing portfolio of central London office properties including 88 Wood Street, CityPoint and One Finsbury Circus encompassing over 19.2 million sq ft in total. The last half of 2013 saw CBRE add other high profile properties to its portfolio including the 40 storey central London skyscraper commonly known as the Gherkin which occupies 505,000 sq ft and the Cube, a 500,000 sq ft mixed used development in Birmingham.

Khaled Kudsi, Senior Managing Director at Northwood, commented: “We appointed CBRE due to the experience they have of the central London market. In particular, they demonstrated in-depth knowledge of surrounding occupiers to the 90 Long Acre site which was a big pull for us. The property management expertise they will provide will be a core part of our ongoing real estate strategy at this site.”

David King, Chairman of Property and Asset Management UK at CBRE, said: “We took a collaborative approach to Northwood’s brief, pulling together our cross team expertise to demonstrate our forward thinking capabilities and first class knowledge of the central London market. To be appointed is testament to this approach and we very much look forward to working with Northwood to meet its goals in the short and longer term.”