The site of Beatles’ one-time office sold for £222m

A JOINT venture between Aberdeen Asset Management and Great Portland Estates (GPE) has sold an office and retail building – where in 1968 the Beatles started Apple Corps – in the west end of London for more than £222 million.

The site, at 95 Wigmore Street and close to Selfridges, has been snapped up by UBS Global Asset Management’s real estate business.

Tenants include financial ser vices fir ms Pyr ford International, Lane Clark & Peacock and Bridgepoint Advisers. The deal also includes an additional smaller property at 35 James Street.

Annual rental income is said to be £8.1m with rents ranging from £77.50 to £92.50 per square feet.

Nick Ireland, head of UK property segregated fund management at Aberdeen, said: “This sale is in line with the strategy to realise profit from mature assets where the business plan has been completed.

“The relationship with GPE has been an extremely successful one and the high quality of 95 Wigmore Street is a testimony to this.”

Toby Courtauld, chief executive of GPE, said: “The sale of 95 Wigmore Street is the culmination of an exceptional development project for GWP, with the office accommodation fully let only six weeks after practical completion [in 2013].

“The sale continues our strategy of recycling capital out of assets where we have created significant value and back into our portfolio of central London development and refurbishment projects, timed to coincide with a shortage of new Grade A space to let.”

The 95 Wigmore Street address was once the home of the Beatles’ Apple record company. The modern eight storey building, completed in the summer of 2013, replaced a number of office blocks built in the 1960s and 1970s.

The GPE joint venture was i nitially with Scottish Widows Investment Partnership. Aberdeen completed a takeover deal for SWIP last year.