Wetherell Mayfairs Fitnes Properties

LONDON - In 1677 Sir Thomas Grosvenor married one Mary Davies. No doubt it was a love match but it also brought benefits of a less romantic nature.

Mary inherited an area of empty land known as the Five Fields, which amounted to 500 acres, or 167 hectares, north of the Thames and to the west of the City of London.

Today those acres are known as Mayfair, Belgravia and Pimlico and are still owned by a descendant of Thomas and Mary: Gerald Cavendish, the sixth Duke of Westminster, who, as chairman of the Grosvenor Group, is the fourth richest person in Britain, with a fortune estimated at £7 billion, or $11 billion. In 2010 the group made a profit of £16 million in Britain alone, with assets valued at £3.5 billion.

It would be understandable if the duke sat back and let the money pour in, especially as the value of the 2,000 properties owned by the group in prime central London is pretty much inured to the vagaries of world economic decline, buoyed as it is by the huge number of foreign buyers -- more than 50 nationalities came house hunting here last year -- and to a shortage in supply.

But the group is not taking that easy route to steady profits. Instead it is stepping up investment in its traditional territory: the 300 acres it owns in Mayfair and Belgravia.

Last year alone it invested £140 million in 22 separate transactions because, as the chief executive, Peter Vernon, said, "We decided to shift away from major regeneration projects and instead focus on London residential, doing what we do best."

The group has been regaining control of leased buildings on its property and turning them into the kind of upscale housing traditionally in short supply in the British capital.

"My view is that it's our core business -- it's what we're all about," Mr. Vernon said.

Grosvenor's most ambitious current project is a row of apartments worth £240 million that lurk luxuriously behind the elegant stucco facade of 3-10 Grosvenor Crescent, Belgravia.

The Grade II listed terrace was built in the 1860s and, after five years as the headquarters for the British Red Cross, has been converted into 15 properties, with five apartments over three or four stories ranging from the huge (4,570 square feet, about 425 square meters) to the immense (10,800 square feet) with seven lateral and duplex apartments (2,336 to 4,413 square feet) and three lateral from 829 to 1,470 square feet.

The Grand Apartment, as it has been named, will be marketed at £40 million-plus.

It takes up two floors of Number 7 and, like all the properties has been carefully refurbished to combine the old with the push-button new.

With ceilings up to 12.5 feet, or 3.78 meters, high, it still has the original dark paneling in a dining room designed for the elaborate dinners of the 19th century, the architraves and much of the intricate cornicing have been preserved and complemented with hand-painted wallpaper.

All the properties, which come with a 999-year lease and a share of the freehold on the building, have the kind of fittings expected in this market, including bathrooms in Carrara marble -- the Grosvenor team made more than 80 trips to Italy to make sure the grain of the slabs was just so. There also are walk-in closets in cherry wood, while the wallpaper comes with a metal finish in one apartment, another is in horsehair plaster.

One touch of a remote control and the door to a mews house in the cobbled street behind swings open to reveal the entrance to a shared underground parking garage for 22 cars.

"We made sure the cobbles were level enough to allow a Lamborghini with its 65-millimeter clearance to drive over them without scraping," said Jonathan Wyatt, associate director of the group's development division.

He added: "What we are doing is taking historical elements and bringing them back to life. Numbers 3-10 were in bad condition so we have breathed life into them. But it is not just buildings we are acquiring and improving, we have upgraded the public realm in Mount Street, Mayfair and Belgravia's Elizabeth Street by widening the pedestrian area and removing the clutter of unnecessary signs."

The group also has plans for neighboring apartments at numbers 11-15 Grosvenor Crescent and is opening a boutique hotel, The Beaumont, in 2014 on Balderston Street in Mayfair; an office and retail block in Davies Street; and an apartment block and the site for a restaurant in North Audley Street.

It is also diversifying into the rental market. An old bank in Green Street, around the corner from the U.S. Embassy, has been turned into three triplex apartments.

The exterior still has its original cupola and red brick facade. Inside, there are the original tall windows and sloping ceilings that add appeal to the large open-plan living and kitchen/dining areas and outdoor terraces.

Not only are there leather-lined bathrooms and glass-finished kitchen cupboards, but there is a bespoke unit to hold a small coffee-making machine, complete with slots for the capsules.

Who would pay the asking rent of £5,000 per week? Grosvenor is envisaging interest from those in the world of finance who are based temporarily in London, or are waiting for a suitable property to come on the market.

In London, that can be a long wait. Grosvenor says an average of only 150 properties -- from one-bedroom apartments to town houses -- become available in Mayfair every year. But Peter Wetherell, of the eponymous Mayfair agency, notes: "A report we prepared in June 2002 stated that there were 124 properties for sale in Mayfair. Fast forward a decade and there are now only 68 instructions, nearly 50 percent down."

Despite the small supply, demand is sustained by foreign investors. Latest research from the real estate agent Savills analyzed the dynamics of the prime London new-build market and found that two out of three of the buyers today come from abroad, compared with one out of four as recently as 2009.

They generated a net £1.4 billion inflow of equity in 2011, which gives London more in common with Hong Kong and Singapore real estate than with the wider British property market.

While the real estate agency Knight Frank acknowledged the "historic undersupply" in a report in January, it also said: "Ironically, economic and even political turmoil have provided the impetus for growth. Our outlook remains that prices will rise 5 percent in 2012, driven in large part by international demand and relatively constrained supply."

Stuart Bailey of the Knight Frank Belgravia branch, added: "Belgravia provides a sanctuary for the global wealthy. It embodies all those qualities of 'Englishness' that is the very reason they choose buy homes there in the first place."

By Richard Holledge
The New York Times - Friday 2nd March 2012
Click to see original article

It would be disingenuous to call Mayfair “up and coming” – after all, its prestige and attractions have drawn the world’s elite for centuries.

But change is afoot: no longer just a haven for hedge funds, designer shops and the odd rich Russian resident, Mayfair’s stock of residential property is rocketing as offices are converted into homes to meet demand of would-be private residents. The commercial property agent H2SO reported that two million sq ft of offices is being converted into homes and there are several redevelopments in progress.

Oliver Hooper, of property consultants Huntly Hooper, says: “The change of use of these buildings is because the capital value of residential space is much more than offices.” Hooper says that prices have gone up from about £1,700 per sq ft to over £2,500 p sq ft in most instances within the last few years, with areas such as Grosvenor Square over £3,000 per sq ft.

Peter Wetherell, of Wetherell Estates, an established Mayfair agent, says: “People always say to me, ‘Mayfair is undervalued’ – the problem was lack of stock. But now with more availability of stock, the market can motor. There’s huge demand.” Indeed: Wetherell recently put a Georgian house on the market for £14m – four windows across, it was a former office on Upper Grosvenor Street. Within six weeks there were 140 viewings, 19 offers, £300m worth of bids (the majority in cash) and it went for far over the guide price.

Major residential projects include Walpole Mayfair at 4-5 Arlington Street: five very luxurious apartments next to the Ritz and just behind the Wolseley; and the “In and Out” building on Piccadilly, a currently ramshackle mansion that is to be converted into 24 high end apartments over 70,000 sq ft, looking out on Green Park. Further rumoured developments include the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, bought by Qatari Diar, developers of One Hyde Park and Chelsea Barracks. And Richard Caring, owner of Caprice Holdings (the Ivy and so on), is in charge of a consortium of investors who have won planning permission to turn the US Navy Headquarters on Grosvenor Square into 31 luxury apartments.

Why now? Economically, super-prime London has remained an exception in Britain, bucking all trends. Peter Wetherell says: “The West End is a sort of nation state on the world stage. It’s not a bubble, more of a cocoon. But cocoons can still break: it depends on the government not over-regulating and screwing up London’s ability to be a financial hub.” With the cocoon still in tact, though, residential is better value for developers, per square foot as – unlike in offices – toilets, stairwells, lobbies and such count in the square footage. And, as commercial outfits increasingly value larger spaces with open-plan floors, rather than the smaller rooms of the period buildings, more commercial leases are coming up for grabs.

Before it was hedge fund paradise and home to dozens of Michelin-star restaurants, the most powerful of Brits (and in the context of the Empire, the world), resided in Mayfair. “Before WWI, Mayfair was home to the aristocrats and plutocrats that ruled the globe,” says Wetherell. But the wars severely dented the finances of those who had been able to live there and private homes became hotels (the Dorchester and Grosvenor House Hotel, for example). Following the Blitz, the Square Mile needed new offices and Mayfair rents were relatively low. Around 1990, leases on office buildings expired, and residential properties began to be redeveloped. Now, with London as nightlife and cultural capital of the world, Mayfair is at the heart of another renaissance, but only the richest need apply.

By Zoe Strimpel
City A.M - Friday 2nd March 2012
click to see original article

Its retail rents are breaking records at £1,000 per square foot. What’s driving Mayfair’s headrush of super-luxury? Will it last? And are commercial property prices squeezing out Mayfair’s traditional business residents?

If you’ve played Monopoly recently, you might have noticed how the magnificent Mayfair doesn’t feature any more. Back in July, it was bumped off by the posh Kensington Gardens, reflecting a “shift in power”.

But soon the boardgame makers might want to reconsider their decision, and put Mayfair back in the game.

Why? Because Mayfair is flexing its retail rental and commercial property muscles like never before.

Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo this month signed up for a Bond Street space at nearly £1,000 per square foot, the UK’s most expensive retail rent paid in history. And French luxury brands are queueing up for the opulent postcodes of Mayfair.

Mayfair has become the property Pied Piper, luring super-rich shoppers and uber-cool retailers.
The mighty Bond Street

Bond Street

Bond Street’s supremacy as the UK’s most expensive shopping street justifies skyrocketing rents that luxury brands don’t mind paying. This is where the French fashion harbingers are always at loggerheads to get the attention of the well-heeled shoppers.

Just last week, Chanel was hoping to get planning approval from Westminster for an all-singing, all-dancing new shop front to pit itself against the jazzy retail face of its French foe Louis Vuitton.

Rents on nearby Oxford Street are on average only £200 per square foot, by comparison, and Marylebone High Street is around £225. Salvatore Ferragamo is paying five times that to be on Bond Street.

Cushman & Wakefield predicts that Bond Street rents could easily go up to £1,500 per square foot by 2013

But is £1,000 per square foot as good as it gets?

Maybe not.

Cushman & Wakefield predicts that Bond Street rents could easily go up to £1,500 per square foot by 2013.

“Records are meant to be broken, aren’t they?” says Duncan Gilliard, senior surveyor in the central London retail team at Cushman & Wakefield.

“The exclusivity a brand enjoys to be based on Bond street is why rents might break the £1,000 barrier as soon as next year. The street’s a must-visit for international tourists with big wallets, which is why it’s at the heart of the expansion plans for big luxury brands.”

This month, for example, British luxury brand Belstaff announced plans to move to Bond Street at a rental rate of £3m over 20 years. In December 2009, jeweller Piaget spent £965 per square foot to sell its stones from Bond Street.

Mount Street: the next best thing

This up-and-coming Mayfair elite street is definitely giving Bond Street a run for its money.

Owned by the Grosvenor Estate, the property company controlled by the Duke of Westminster, Mount Street boasts the most sought-after fashion and lifestyle brands.

Recent luxury boutique openings include Loewe, Lanvin, Ralph Lauren and Aesop. Some of Mayfair’s oldest, most established names such as Alfred Dunhill, Christian Louboutin, Marc Jacobs, Azzaro and Stephen Webster also strut their stuff on Mount Street.

And that’s not to mention the gourmet offerings of Mount St Deli and the high-end seafood restaurant Scotts. Or the colourful Mount Street gallery spaces.

Mount Street has been a silent backwater for many years compared to retail meccas like Oxford Street or Bond Street. But with its host of glossy new residents, it might just be on its way to stealing Bond Street’s crown.

“Mount Street undoubtedly attracts a far more elite crowd than Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street together,” says Peter Wetherell, managing director of Wetherell, property specialists based in Mayfair for over 20 years.

“This is where multi-millionaires pop by in their chauffeur-driven cars, spend a fortune in the fashionable boutiques and then wine and dine in the best restaurants on the street.”

A testimony to the exclusivity of Mount Street is the fact that Grosvenor Estates makes brands pass a rigorous assessment to be based there. The brands are evaluated on everything from shop design to the pavement widths. Popular luxury brands such as The Kooples and Fabergé didn’t pass the test and were denied admission to this elite street.

“Grosvenor has been able to create a certain magnetism to the area by picking and choosing brands that can be based out of Mount Street,” says Wetherell. “The bar is very high which gives shoppers a very eclectic mix of things to spend their money on.”

Grosvenor has plans for strengthening retail flagship stores on Mount Street over the next year, which will add further credibility to the street’s existing boutiques and stores.

“Grosvenor’s recent focus has been on the further transformation of Mount Street as a desirable destination,” says Helen Franks, retail director for Grosvenor Estates. “This has included the redevelopment of the public realm space in July 2011, and the erection of an outstanding water feature ‘Silence’, by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, opposite The Connaught Hotel.”
How the French made Mayfair property très cher

South Molten Street

Back in September, we told you that 69 per cent of Bond Street property is now foreign-owned, and that the French own 13.6 per cent of the strip. French lifestyle brands can’t get enough of London.

In the past year alone, luxury French brands like Les Petites, Sandro, Maje, Aubade, Loft Design, Paula Ka, Gerard Darel and Vanessa Bruno have come to the capital. French brands already well established in London include Comptoir des Cotonniers, Agnes B, Anne Fontaine, Bonpoint and Zadig & Voltaire.

And Mayfair’s South Molton Street and Westbourne Grove are where the French retailers have made their presence felt the most. The streetscape is the answer to Le Marais, one of the hippest shopping districts in Paris.

The Mayfair effect: The boom is back

“French clothing chain Sandro is rumoured to have paid £800,000 as premium for 6 Marylebone High Street, such is the scale of the rents that the French will pay to be based in the exclusive streets of London,” says Cushman & Wakefield’s Gilliard.

“Their commitment to the London retail market has been cemented by their acquisition of stores alongside opening of concessions and ecommerce stores. In addition, their wide-ranging and prominent advertising campaigns such as ‘The Kooples couples’ appearing on numerous black taxis and London buses has increased their visibility,” he adds.

French brands typically snap up between 1,000 - 1,500 square foot in prime locations, often paying eye-watering premiums. South Molton Street and Westbourne Grove have both seen rents rise by 25 per cent over the last year.

One of the principal reasons for the price increase is demand from French retailers, coupled with the limited supply of available properties.

Gilliard explains: “Coming to London is a natural progression for French brands as the capital gives them the opportunity to sell their stuff to the countless nationalities and tourists. Also, as the French retailers can easily hop on the Eurostar to London and go back to Paris in a jiffy, it makes London the ideal place to plan global expansions.”

Mayfair’s hedge-funds: squeezed out of the property market?

The hegemony of hedge funds in Mayfair has lasted more than 20 years. Having an address in Mayfair means quite a bit to hedge-fund owners: it’s a status symbol that shows you have the money to pay some of the world’s most expensive rents.

But the economic downturn saw many big-name funds leaving Mayfair’s side in search of lower rents. Established names in the business like Brevan Howard and DE Shaw moved out the area for cheaper Baker Street.

“It’s not just cheap rents that prompted the exodus,” says Mat Oakley, head of commercial research team, Savills. “We saw a lot of hedge-fund companies getting lured to Geneva for less-stringent taxation and regulation.”

But it seems like the retail rates paid by superbrands aren’t affecting the industry too badly. The average rent to let office spaces in Mayfair is between £100 and £110 per square foot, and companies who want to be located in Mayfair often won’t bat an eyelid at that.

Hedge fund managers to ‘outspend bankers on London properties’

In a column for LondonlovesBusiness.com, Anthony Lorenz, founder of Lorenz Consultancy, writes: “The  majority of corporate occupiers’ total expenditure on rent, rates and service charges only amounts to between 10 - 12 per cent of their total outgoings. They are not that worried if there is a 10 - 20 per cent rise in rental values - they will pay what they have to.”

Property pundits might hail hedge-fund owners’ relationship with Mayfair, but with the Shard and other skyscrapers coming up on London’s skyline within the next few years will Mayfair loose its edge?

“Absolutely not, I don’t think the hedge fund owners would ditch Mayfair for the skyscrapers,” says Wetherell.

“Hedge funds have always been and will always be an intrinsic part of Mayfair. The sector is aware that being based out of Mayfair is extremely profitable and will deliver nothing but positive returns,” he adds.

Mayfair’s retail realm is going from strength to the strength. The hedge-fund industry still calls it home, and of course it’s got the Ferraris and Porsches wheeling in all day. Shouldn’t it make a comeback on the Monopoly board too?

By Shruti Tripathi
London Loves Business.com - 19th February 2012
Click to see original article

Mount Street`s annual Christmas Party is back after a rest and this year will be sparklier than ever.  Whether you have nearly finished your festive gift list or not yet started the event provides the prefect opportunity for a luxurious evening of shopping accompanies by refreshments & novelties from some of the world`s finest brands.

As is traditional on Mount Street we will be officially switching on the Christmas Lights at 6.30pm with the help of a very special guest Strictly Come Dancing`s Nancy Dell`Olio

As a added bonus Mount Street Mayfair are running a Twitpic competion, so don`t forget to send your photos of the event to @mountstreet with the #MountStreetLights

If you can`t make it down @kingsroadrocks will be tweeting live from the event.

It has been established for years as the most expensive shopping district in one of the world's richest cities but, as Bond Street becomes more mainstream, Grosvenor is looking around the corner to give the super-wealthy the ultra-premium retail experience they seek.
The property investor plans to turn Mount Street and neighbouring Carlos Place in the heart of Mayfair into an exclusive enclave - a retail playground for the super-rich based on Avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Helen Franks, the head of retail and commercial lettings at Grosvenor, said: "Bond Street has become too accessible. Mount Street is not a passing-trade destination, We want people who will come here in their chauffeur-driven convertibles and buy ten pairs of Louboutin shoes."
On Mount Street the group, which has a sprawling property empire covering 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia, has five to ten brands vying for every vacant slot, Ms Franks said. "Demand is hugely outstripping supply."
This year Loewe, part of the French LVMH luxury stable, took a site on the street, while RRL, Ralph Lauren's jeans brand, is moving in this autumn. Grosvenor is talking to the perfumier Jo Malone about a concept store - Jo Loves - as well as Italy's Bottega Veneta and HermÈs crockery.
Mount Street's rise began with the arrival of Marc Jacobs in 2006, Ms Franks said. Since then, Grosvenor, which is investing £10 million in a "makeover" of the area, has signed Balenciaga, the Spanish high-fashion brand owned by PPR, another French conglomerate.
It is now targeting a list of ten "dream ticket" names, including Celine Givenchy, Erdem, Alaia, Chloé and Yves Saint Laurent, which it is "desperate" to place, Ms Franks said. With a vacancy rate of 3 to 4 per cent, a site comes free only once every six months. The developer frequently turns away stores, including the edgy French fashion newcomer The Kooples, which are deemed not to be sufficiently high-end.
Grosvenor is hoping to tempt wellestablished brands such as Christian Dior away from Sloane Square or Bond Street, providing that they give up their other locations. It will only accept retailers who are prepared to commit to a single store in the city.
The property group is also planning to redevelop Carlos Place to recreate French-style "maisons" - fashion houses with offices above the stores. Roland Mouret, the dressmaker, has already taken a site and the group is in talks to fill the house next door.
Rents on the lesser-known streets are £325 a sq ft, compared with about £950 on Bond Street, and the conversion rate of browsing to buying is "very high" compared with elsewhere in the West End, Ms Franks said.
She said there had been no friction with landlords on Sloane Street or Bond Street over poaching suggestions.
"A vacancy on Bond Street goes in nanoseconds," she said.
The Mount Street clientele fall into fashionista types and "affluent, wellheeled Brits and Europeans" with fewer visitors from the Middle East compared with the rest of the quarter. The Mount Street redevelopment should be complete by 2016, Grosvenor said. 'We want people to be chauffered here and buy ten pairs of Louboutins'

The plan is to turn Mount Street into a retail playground for the super-rich

By Emily Ford - The Times - 17th October 2011

Mayfair and its near neighbour St James's have been synonymous with style, success and celebrity for centuries. Today, Mayfair is the world's most expensive office location – easily outstripping New York and Tokyo for rents achieved. At the same time, the value of residential accommodation has soared.

A Grosvenor Square flat sold 25 years ago for £200,000 would fetch £4 million today. But it wasn't always that way. There had been a scattering of private houses in the countryside west of the City of London since Elizabethan times, but it was the plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666 that drove the development boom in St James's. Work began on Bond Street just 17 years later. The name Mayfair came from an annual May Fair held in a boggy field near the Tyburn brook in what is now Shepherd Market. It began 20 years after the Great Fire in the reign of James II and quickly became a bawdy affair "for musick, showes, drinking, gaming, raffling, lotteries, stageplays and drolls".

The May Fair was condemned by the authorities for its "lewd and disorderly practices", although it was also said to have been immensely popular and frequented "by all the nobility of the town". Featuring booths for jugglers and prize fighters and bear and bull baiting, it continued for 78 years until it was finally brought to an end by new residents who had moved in alongside it and objected to the noise. Still, fairs are demountable and the May Fair – which had originally been held in Haymarket anyway – moved on to Fair Field in Bow. All that remains today is a blue plaque in Shepherd Market – and the name Mayfair, which has shrugged off its "lewd and disorderly" tag to become a byword for quality.
Mayfair through the years

1667
Henry Jermyn, 1st Earl of St Albans develops Jermyn Street in St James's, once part of the same royal park as Green Park and St James's Park.

1677
Sir Thomas Grosvenor marries Mary Davies.The "hundred acres" of the Manor of Ebury – including much of what will become Mayfair – pass into the Grosvenor family.

1683
Sir Thomas Bond and a group of other developers buy Clarendon House from Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albermarle and begin to develop Bond Street,Albermarle Street and Dover Street.

1686
The May Fair is established on Brook Field (named after the Tyburn brook, which runs through it) later to become Shepherd Market. It soon becomes a bawdy affair.

1698
Berkeley Square is created to a design by architect William Kent on the site of the gardens of Berkeley House, the home of Sir John Berkeley.

1708
The Grand Jury of Westminster passes judgement on the May Fair:"Disorderly persons do rendezvous and draw and allure young persons and servants to meet to game and commit lewd and disorderly practices."

1707
Fortnum & Mason established.

1710
Sir Richard Grosvenor obtains a licence to develop Grosvenor Square and the surrounding streets.

1721
Development of the Grosvenor estate begins.

1735
Builder Edward Shepherd constructs Shepherd Market on the site of the May Fair. It consists of butchers' shops at the lower level, and a theatre where plays were staged during the Fair.

1750
The Punch Bowl opens on Farm Street.

1764
The May Fair, which had wilted under the fierce gaze of Queen Anne, re-establishes itself under George I. It finally falls foul of gentrification when a group of new residents, including the Earl of Coventry, take out the 18th century equivalent of a noise abatement order.The fair moves on.

1805
The newly created Earl Grosvenor buys Gloucester House, a small residence, on Park Lane for £20,000.The property is developed and expanded over many years. In 1889 it becomes one of the first houses in London to have electricity. It remains in the Grosvenor family until World War 1, when it is requisitioned by the government. It is now redeveloped as the Grosvenor House Hotel.

1818
John Nash draws up the master plan for Regent Street and Regent's Park.

1819
Lord George Cavendish creates the Burlington Arcade.

1906
The Ritz on Piccadilly opens to the public on May 24.

1931
Sir Robert McAlpine completes the Dorchester hotel.

1942
Dwight D Eisenhower and his staff move into hotels and flats around Grosvenor Square, which is unofficially renamed Eisenhower Platz by GIs

1960
The American Embassy in Grosvenor Square is completed to designs by Eero Saarinen.