Situated on the corner of Tottenham Court Road and Percy Street, Metropolis House totals 82,000 sf of office and retail space. The office floors above are currently vacant but a banking hall and shop on the ground floor produce an annual rent of £312,500 ($500,000). Included in the sale was 28 Percy Street, an adjoining period property housing 2,500 sf of offices let to Aladdin Books until 2009 at £67,500 ($108,000) per annum.

Planning permission exists to extend Metropolis House at podium level and to carry out a complete refurbishment that will create 100,000 sf of modern office space in floors of 4,000 and 12,000 sf. GPE plans to implement the consent with a view to delivering the space to the market in mid-2005.

Insignia Richard Ellis acted for GPE in the acquisition, while Hodnett Martin Smith represented the vendor, a client of Threadneedle Asset Management.

At the same time GPE has sold seven non-core, mainly non-income producing properties for a total of £16.4 million ($26 million). The largest lot was a 22,680-sf freehold office building at 33 Chancery Lane, London WC2. This has been sold with full vacant possession to the Trustees of the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn for £8.25 million ($13 million)

GPE's Chief Executive Toby Courtauld said: "The acquisition of Metropolis House fits with our stated aim of investing in properties with significant angles to exploit. Once refurbished, it will offer high quality, competitively priced floor plates into a West End market that we predict will be short of new grade A space by 2005."