Colmore Plaza is sold at £10m loss to Carlyle Group
THE Colmore Plaza office complex in Birmingham has been bought in what is believed to be the city’s largest property deal this year but at a cost of around £10 million to the seller.
Carlyle Group acquired the 310,000 sq ft building, in Colmore Circus Queensway, for £150 million in 2006 when it was still under construction.
It has now agreed a deal understood to be worth £140 million with London-based investor AshbyCapital.
The purchase is AshbyCapital ‘s first deal outside of the capital and was sparked by other recent corporate moves in Birmingham and the construction of HS2.
Colmore Plaza is two-thirds let to tenants including Vodafone, Hogan Lovells, Amey and AHR.
AshbyCapital said it intended to increase occupancy through repositioning and asset management of the building.
Chief executive Peter Ferrari said: “These two deals highlight our approach of investing in the best assets in locations where demand is strong and growing.
“The limited supply of grade A office buildings in Birmingham, the improving transport links through HS2 and the expansion of companies such as Deutsche Bank and HSBC in the city mean prospects for high-quality buildings such as Colmore Plaza are very promising.
“As the major regional cities such as Birmingham and Manchester continue their strong recovery, we continue to be interested in opportunities in prime, central locations in these markets.”
Nicky Barker, associate director at The Carlyle Group, said: “Having secured a number of new leases at Colmore Plaza, we are delighted to complete this sale to AshbyCapital in what is one of the largest regional deals of the year so far.”
AshbyCapital was advised by JLL and Cushman & Wakefield acted for Carlyle Group.