A UK investment vehicle headed by Green Reit founder Pat Gunne looks set to make its first splash in the London office market after agreeing terms to buy a 70,000 sq ft scheme in the heart of the city.
3RE Capital Ventures, which Mr Gunne officially launched after he and his business partner Stephen Vernon sold Green Reit to Henderson Park for €1.34 billion in 2019, is set to acquire 11 Baker Street from German property investor Patrizia for around £57 million.
The property remains under offer, and the parties are still conducting due diligence on the deal, sources close to the matter said.
Confirmed by The Irish Times on Thursday, the news was first reported by the commercial property news website Green Street News. Mr Gunne was approached for comment but declined to comment or elaborate on the report.
3RE is partnering with private equity firm Aermont to acquire the development, part of a plan to invest some £700 million in a London office market that is showing signs of recovery after a torrid period during and immediately after the pandemic.
Mr Gunne’s vehicle raised some £350 million from Aermont last year but has so far been slow to deploy capital.
In lieu of making outright purchases, 3RE and Aermont have also partnered with existing owners to accelerate projects in the London market, Green Street News reported.
This has included reaching a development management agreement with John Magnier and JP McManus, owners of Unilver House, to undertake a “comprehensive overhaul of the recognisable building” on Victoria Embankment in Blackfriars, according to the website.
Mr Gunne has kept a relatively low profile since the sale of Dublin-listed Green Reit in 2019, which remains one of the largest deals in the history of the Irish market.
He and Mr Vernon have a reputation across the industry for timing their arrivals in and departures from markets, having set up Green Reit in 2013, just as commercial property values were beginning to recover from the 2008 crash.
Among other assets, Green Reit owned a portfolio of prime offices, including One Molesworth Street and George’s Quay Plaza in central Dublin, Central Park in Leopardstown on the capital’s southside, and One Albert Quay in Cork.
3RE is also understood to be interested in exploring opportunities in the Dublin office market, where leasing continued to recover in the first quarter of the year after something of a rebound in the second half of 2024.
Take-up in the city totalled nearly 39,500 sq m (425,025 sq ft) in the first three months of 2025. This was more than double the level seen in the same period in the first three months of 2024, but lagged behind the long-term quarterly average of nearly 60,000 sq m (425,175 sq ft).
