The Lord giveth...
Has God changed His mind on the outlook for London’s commercial property sector?
In 2019 Covent Garden IP Ltd— a property fund and registered charity owned by the Mormon Church — bought part of the Alder Castle office building near London Wall.
But it seems the Church’s fund managers were not omniscient enough to forsee the pandemic and its devastating impact on City property demand.
After bankers from Lloyds vacated the building, Covent Garden IP revealed plans to turn part of the space into the City’s first Mormon chapel. At the time, it said the offering of the unwanted bit of office space meant it wouldn’t need to make a cash donation to the church, and wrote down the value of the property.
But that may have only been the start of the Exodus. Spy notes that almost the entire space has come back onto the market. Covent Garden IP says the relisting of the office space follows a renovation of most of the building. Will the property generate the demand needed to justify the £100 million 2019 purchase price? God only knows.
Plans for a Church meetinghouse in the building are still in place, albeit pushed back a couple of months, a spokesperson tells Spy. If the fund can’t find new tenants, there could be room for a full-blown temple.
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