The City just got trendier, after an office space provider known for its jazzy buildings paid just shy of £159m for a block in Finsbury Circus.Workspace Group, which owns properties around Fleet Street and Old Street, but none in the middle of the City, said it had paid £158.7m for Salisbury House at 28-31 Finsbury Circus.The Grade II-listed building is held on a long leasehold from the City of London Corporation, and provides 240,000 sq ft of office space, with a capital value of £661.10 per sq ft, and a low average passing rent of £41.50 per sq ft, at an initial yield of five per cent.
At the moment it's 90 per cent occupied by 105 customers, who generated net rental income of £8.1m over the last 12 months.Workspace said the transaction will be funded from its existing resources, including an additional £100m of five-year revolver facilities provided by its bank lending syndicate, which has also provided another £50m 364-day revolver facility for working capital purposes."The City has become an increasingly attractive area for our customers, and this well-located building is ideally suited to our operational model," said Jamie Hopkins, Workspace's chief executive."The transaction emphasises our commitment to expand further through targeted acquisitions, adding to our existing pipeline of refurbishment and redevelopment projects, to deliver superior value and returns to shareholders over the long-term."