INDIA BUILDINGS: LETTING TO HMRC

Worthington Owen were joint agents on the sale of India Buildings to Shelborn Asset Management in 2016 for £17m.

Historically, India Buildings was regarded as one of Liverpool’s finest office buildings and was generally fully let but by 2016 the building had, due to a number of factors, suffered badly to the point where it was only 25% occupied.  Shelborn’s intention was to undertake a 5 year restoration and to return the building to its previous preeminent position as Liverpool’s best office building.

In 2016, HMRC initiated a programme to have 13 new Hubs across the UK.  Their brief was to acquire new, state of the art bespoke buildings and India Buildings was initially dismissed given its Grade 2* listed status and the fact that it dates from the 1930s!

Worthington Owen worked with Shelborn to form an experienced and skilled project team to help demonstrate that the building could cater for HMRC’s exacting requirements in order to fight off competition from new build solutions.  In addition, we negotiated with the 12 protected tenants to relocate them to units on the outside of the building.

The Lease itself was complicated and several different models were reviewed, analysed and negotiated before agreeing a structure that worked for both parties.  An Agreement to Lease was exchanged in late 2017 and the building was subsequently forward sold to L&G for £125m.