Royal Mail's £40m Chelsea delivery for Iranian Treasury

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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King’s Road sorting office near Chelsea Barracks sold for high-end residential scheme

An Iranian investor has snapped up a former Royal Mail sorting office in London’s Chelsea for £40m, in one of the postal service’s biggest sales since beginning a review of its surplus property 16 months ago.

Borzoo Shirazi, founder of Treasury Investments, bought the 0.4 acre site just off the prestigious King’s Road earlier this month, Property Week has learnt.

The site on Chelsea Manor Street was sold as a part of a Royal Mail strategy to dispose of surplus properties and realise value from its 43m sq ft estate.

Shirazi plans to redevelop the site for residential use, and has a track record of luxury development, although the site does not yet have planning consent.

His company, which comprises architects and stylists, usually develops between 10 and 15 properties a year and sells them for between £250,000 and £1.5m.

The properties often contain luxurious works of art and bespoke interior design, and this larger-scale scheme would be its biggest yet.

It is not known how Shirazi is funding the purchase. It is understood that he aims to achieve residential sales values of £2,000/sq ft to justify the price and has also approached landowners in the area to try to increase his holdings and expand plans for the scheme.

The sale follows the £959m purchase last year by the Candy brothers’ CPC Group and Qatari Diar of the nearby Chelsea Barracks site, and cements the area’s reputation as a location for high-end residential, despite the credit crunch.

Securing a good price in the current market is good news for Royal Mail, which has been reviewing its estate as it attempts to modernise the postal service.

Chelsea is the first London depot sale since Martin Gafsen took over as head of property from David Flowers in January 2007 and began the review. Operations at Chelsea Manor Street have now been moved to Nine Elms in Lambeth, south London.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: ‘Royal Mail has sold its Chelsea site as it is no longer necessary for our operational needs. In these circumstances we have a duty to maximise assets.’

She declined to comment on the details of the sale. She said Royal Mail’s wider strategy was to keep the estate under continual review as the company modernises.

Royal Mail is also selling a portfolio of 40 regional post offices for £20m through Atisreal.

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[westham67]

Perhaps they can pay the bonus now

[Lincox]

No doubt this will be added to the end of year accounts and the likes of Moya Greene and her underlings will receive cash bonuses paid on profitability for which they have had no input into the making at all. Surely this is public money and should go to the treasury to assist with debt reduction, or at least help pay down the pension deficit.

[BELIAL]

Cocks £1.5 million to keep dry

[fishtank]

Cocks £1.5 million to keep dry

Probably bankers using our £1.5 million to keep dry. Us Cocks.

[BELIAL]

Cocks £1.5 million to keep dry

Probably bankers using our £1.5 million to keep dry. Us Cocks.

Fair point. but they deserve it and we are feckless ,work-shy and generally not worthy .

[tonyhendrix]

My old office in the 80's rip