RW1, a new investment vehicle launched by Native Land’s founders alongside private Asian investors, has acquired OneThreeSix, a 44,500-sq ft newly built office asset on George Street in Marylebone, London W1. It is the first purchase of a planned c£500m commercial property investment strategy focused on forward purchasing assets under construction and directly undertaking value-add opportunities in central London.
RW1 has been launched this month by Montrose Land, the private investment vehicle owned by Native Land founders Alasdair Nicholls and Jonathan Mantovani, with co-investment from a number of Asian high-net-worth family offices.
RW1 has paid around £60m for OneThreeSix, Native Land’s recently completed office development on The Portman Estate. OneThreeSix was fully let prior to completion to fintech company Smart Pension, as its new global headquarters. Smart signed a 15-year lease in July 2021, at a headline rent of £82 a sq ft, in one of the largest West End lettings during the pandemic.
OneThreeSix meets RW1’s requirements for assets which respond to future occupier and institutional investor demands for high standards of sustainability, design, and wellness in the workplace. It is one of the first all-electric powered office buildings in central London and is operationally carbon zero. It was designed with productivity, sustainability and wellbeing as priorities, targeting BREEAM Excellent, WiredScore Gold and WELL Building Ready ratings.
Native Land will identify, acquire and manage all assets for RW1 going forward, drawing on two decades of experience in creating some of the highest quality commercial, mixed-use and residential developments in central London.
Finn Carew, Managing Director – Investments at RW1, said:
‘OneThreeSix typifies the high-quality contemporary office developments that RW1 is looking to purchase. RW1 plans to build an investment portfolio of new-era workplace buildings, which meet the preferences of today’s occupiers for environmentally sustainable places designed for wellbeing, creativity, innovation, and collaborative working.’
Alasdair Nicholls, Partner at RW1 and Chief Executive of Native Land, said:
‘The launch of RW1 and the appointment of Native Land as its asset manager reflects the strong personal connections we enjoy with co-investment partners from Asia and the trust they place in us to find and deliver first-rate assets. The relationship with RW1 adds a new dimension to Native Land’s business alongside our well-established development partnerships with leading UK and international co-investor partners.’
RW1 is actively looking to acquire high quality office buildings in central and inner London. Acquisitions will include both third-party assets and future Native Land commercial developments. Investments will be either new, best-in-class developments or outdated assets which can be refurbished and repositioned to provide the standards of sustainability, flexibility and workplace wellness which occupiers and institutional investors now demand.
RW1 secured debt finance for the acquisition from OCBC Bank.
