Workman has provided pre-purchase technical due diligence advice for Addington Capital and BauMont Real Estate Capital in their acquisition of Old Change House in the City for £23m.
Workman has also been appointed to provide ongoing property management services, which the firm began to deliver in March 2024.
The new owners, who completed the purchase of Old Change House earlier this year, intend to roll out a comprehensive refurbishment plan to create best-in-class cat-A offices, with enhanced ESG credentials. The refurbishment is well-timed to take advantage of a shortage in top quality offices in London’s City area, which they believe will provide the potential for higher rental levels being achieved in the building, while re-establishing its institutional credentials.
Martin Roberts, Principal of Addington Capital, said: “The opportunity to undertake a rolling refurbishment programme of an income producing asset like Old Change House offers attractive risk adjusted returns. We are actively pursuing similar “brown to green” projects across Central London, allowing us to upgrade buildings with strong fundamentals to create the high quality, ESG-compliant space, sought after by today’s occupiers. We believe that there will be other similar opportunities over the coming months.”
Matthew Osborne, Partner at Workman, said: “We are delighted to have provided pre-purchase technical due diligence advice for Addington Capital and BauMont Real Estate Capital in their prescient acquisition of Old Change House. We also look forward to working with them on an ongoing basis as our Property Management team, led by David Hall, delivers the best of Workman service-provision, leveraging our extensive experience of managing workspaces during phased transition and refurbishment programmes.”
Old Change House is a 56,814 sq. ft detached office building with basement, ground and five upper floors including 3,732 sq. ft of ground floor retail. The building is currently 61% occupied, with existing occupiers including Walker Crips, GB Group, EZE Software, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Retail and F&B occupiers include Pret A Manger.
The building was originally constructed by Japanese developer, Nissho Iwai in 1997, before being acquired by Coal Pensions Limited in 2000. It was partly refurbished in 2018, including new end-of-trip facilities. It has been sold to BauMont and Addington with two vacant office floors totalling 18,600 sq. ft. Further leases expire in 2025 and 2027.
