Pontegadea, the investment arm of Amancio Ortega (founder of Inditex), is considering acquiring a former BBC office building in central London for around 80 million pounds (90 million euros), according to real estate portal CoStar News.
A fund owned by insurer Standard Life acquired the property in 2017 for £70m (€78.5m) and leased it in 2018 on a 25-year lease to developer Kier Property, which refurbished it to create 3,900 sq m of office space.
Abrdn – formerly Standard Life Aberdeen – has started the sale process, advised by real estate firm Savills, CoStar News detailed.
The building, at 33 Foley Street in the centre of the British capital, was built in the 1920s as the headquarters of a printing firm and later housed the BBC’s commercial division.
The BBC’s current headquarters are about 200 metres from the building, on the commercial thoroughfare of Regent Street.
In February, The Times revealed that Pontegadea had withdrawn from the bidding for Fibonacci Square, the 550 million euro European headquarters of the US group Meta in Dublin.
