Obayashi Properties UK buys London’s 60 Gracechurch Street

KGAL Investment Management has sold the office building 60 Gracechurch Street, with a total lettable space of 11,825 square meters (127,283 square feet), from one of its closed-end funds.

The buyer is Obayashi Properties UK, a wholly owned subsidiary of Obayashi Corporation, one of Japan’s largest construction companies. KGAL’s fund investors were more than satisfied, approving the sale with a 98.5 percent majority.

The office block 60 Gracechurch Street was built in 1997 on a prominent site within the financial district of the City of London. The building was extensively modernized in 2010 before KGAL acquired it for one of its closed-end real estate funds. With the regular fund term ending in 2025, KGAL began to explore the sale of the fully let property last year. The forward-looking work of KGAL’s asset management team included the creation of an initial feasibility study for a new high-rise development of more than 30 stories, which was prepared by renowned