Well what a week it is turning out to be. On Monday we heard that British Land had signed a jv with the Canadian-based Oxford Properties to build a huge city skyscraper – dubbed the Cheesegrater in many circles – and that Westfield was considering a part sale of it’s shopping behemoth at Stratford to Henderson Global investors. Both stories highlight the strength of investor demand for top quality assets in prime or, in the case of Westfield, emerging locations.
By Wednesday Development Securities had purchased a £20m + portfolio from the Rock Group of companies and Ardeshir Naghshineh’s Targetfollow was placed into administration by it’s bankers Lloyds. The Norwich-based investor had been in eleventh hour talks with a US ‘white knight’ to save the business but to no avail.
One story that caught my eye was the company behind those annoying meerkat TV commercials opening a pop-up store on Regent Street. Thankfully it’s only for a few days.