黑洞社区

Facebook鈥檚 new European HQ has been sold by its developer Great Portland Estates to German property giant Deka.

The central London development specialist has secured 拢435m for the Make-designed West End project - which is being built by Lendlease - meaning that it will net a 拢110m profit.

GPE told investors about the sale of the freehold on the Rathbone Square development last Friday.

This sum will be returned to shareholders in the form of a special dividend rather than being pumped into financing new development schemes. In a statement to the stock exchange, GPE said the sale would enable the company to retain 鈥渟ignificant financial flexibility鈥� in a 鈥渃ontinued period of market uncertainty鈥�.

More than half of the 419,700 sq. ft. mixed used development consists of 242,800 sq. ft. of office space, which was pre-let to Facebook in 2015 on a 15 year lease at an annual rent of 拢17.8m.

Just over half of the scheme鈥檚 25,200 sq. ft of retail space is under offer and 139 of the 142 private flats have been sold.

Including ground rents on the private apartments, the entire development is expected to generate 拢19.7m worth of rents once it is fully let.

Commenting on the disposal, GPE development director James Pallett said the company had more than sufficient capital to complete its development pipeline.

鈥淎s we head towards the end of the committed pipeline we have surplus capital and as a result thought it was better placed in our shareholders bank than our own.

鈥淲e have a very low gearing and plenty of cash on hand to still complete our existing commitments.鈥�

Construction work on Rathbone Square, which is being built on the site of a former Royal Mail sorting office on Tottenham Court Road, commenced in 2014,