Great Portland agrees lease at Bond Street station development

Great Portland Estates announced on Monday that one of its joint ventures, the GHS Limited Partnership, has pre-let 57,200 square feet of office space at its Hanover Square, W1 development to international investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.

The FTSE 250 firm said KKR would occupy the fifth to eighth floors of 18/19 Hanover Square on 15 year leases without break, with an option to hand back half of the fifth floor of 8,300 square feet expiring on 1 March 2019.

Following the pre-letting, GHS had committed to the construction of the 1.3 acre mixed-use scheme, which would comprise a new nine storey building incorporating the eastern entrance to the Elizabeth Line's Bond Street station, to be known as 18/19 Hanover Square.

That would include 127,600 square feet of offices and 2,300 square feet of retail space.

GHS had an obligation to purchase that element of the site from Transport for London on a new 150-year lease upon completion of the new ticket hall structure, which was expected in June this year.

The scheme also comprised a separate building on New Bond Street, containing 31,300 square feet of new prime retail units and 33,300 square feet of offices above.

There were also six residential units totalling 12,200 square feet to be built at the junction of New Bond Street and Brook Street, and 8,300 square feet of restaurant space and 6,300 square feet of offices in the Grade II-listed 20 Hanover Square.

“This is a very exciting milestone for us,” said Great Portland Estates chief executive Toby Courtauld.

“Since completing the site assembly in 2008, we have worked closely with Crossrail and Westminster to masterplan the site around the proposed station to create a world-class scheme, on a premier garden square, in the heart of Mayfair.”

Courtauld said the pre-letting to KKR was a “strong endorsement” of the quality of the scheme, securing 21% of the overall gross development value, and was the largest letting in Mayfair for over 10 years.

“We are delighted to welcome KKR to our portfolio and look forward to working with them to create their new London headquarters in this exciting development.”

The announcement came at the same time as Great Portland confirmed it had sold the freehold on its mixed-use development at 78/92 Great Portland Street and 15/19 Riding House Street to M&G Real Estate.