Schroders seeks £44.3m for former Whitechapel department store
Schroders has appointed Allsop to find a buyer for DEPT. W, a former department store at 69-89 Mile End Road in Whitechapel.
The property is being marketed with an asking price of £44.3m, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.5% and a capital value of £517 per sq ft.
The original building was constructed in 1927 for the Wickham family and became affectionately referred to as the ‘Harrods of the East End’.
The former Wickham’s department store was then transformed in 2020 to provide 85,696 sq ft of retail and office space alongside a gym arranged over basement, ground, and three upper floors.
Located on the ground floor, the three retail units are let to Tesco Express, Sports Direct, and The Gym Group and produce a total rent of £622,677 per annum with a weighted average unexpired lease term (WAULT) of 9.1 years.
The upper floors are let in their entirety to Queen Mary University of London, producing a rent of £2,452,280 per annum.
The total annual income of the property equates to £3,074,957, with a WAULT of 10.25 years.
DEPT. W is located a six-minute walk east of the new Whitechapel Elizabeth line station and a seven-minute walk west of Stepney Green Station. The surrounding area of Whitechapel a major growth area, having undergone significant recent transformation.