Luxury property tycoon Christian Candy has scrapped plans to launch into the London office market after cashing in on a potential £50 million West End development he bought last June.
CPC Group, which was founded by Candy, has sold two vacant Fifties office buildings between Goodge Street and Tottenham Court Road stations to listed property company, Great Portland Estates.
The business is best known for developing One Hyde Park — where the interiors were done by Candy & Candy, the company Christian runs with brother Nick, and flats have been bought for as much as £140 million.
It planned to venture into the serviced office market last year but has taken a U-turn to concentrate on luxury homes.
Great Portland Estates is one of a number of developers trying to buy up space in a market which has seen more than 1.8 million square feet of offices converted into housing over the past four years.
It paid between £16.5 million and the £17 million asking price set by selling agent Tudor Toone for the vacant Alfred Place properties, meaning CPC on paper has made a minimum of £500,000.
A CPC spokesman said in January it was keen to capitalise on “the current strongly performing commercial market”.
Planning permission is now in place for a £50 million 43,676-square-foot revamp.
Dan Van Gelder, chairman of the Westminster Property Association, said: “Office rents have been going up because of a dire lack of supply in central London. It is great to see that an office building has not been earmarked for luxury flats as is so common these days.”
