Marlborough House

The Challenge

• Montessori St Nicholas was considering their future options at their valuable HQ building in St John’s Wood, London. We provided the Charity with an Options Appraisal, which then consequently led to our instructions to market this attractive Victorian freehold in a prime residential location for sale.
• The property comprises a Grade II Listed Stucco-fronted Victorian property dating from c.1840, situated within the affluent St John’s Wood Conservation Area, on a leafy residential road. Buildings in such an immaculate condition, with a D1 use class and in a wealthy area very rarely come on to the market. When they do, they attract a large amount of interest from a range of end-users.
• Given the characteristics of the property, we anticipated a large amount of interest from a range of alternative uses and it was therefore important for the opportunity to be sent to the wider market, to ensure that the property had full exposure and all sectors had been captured with our marketing.

The Solution

• A full marketing process was undertaken, with a mail out to our extensive mailing lists, contacts in the education sector and advertising.
• We received offers via informal tender, which enabled us to collate all the bids to draw direct comparisons. Offers were received for continued Education, Nursery/Pre-prep, Office and Residential uses.
• The offers were very strong, and well over the guide price. We went to a ‘best and final’ round, due to the very closely competing nature of the offers, which was nail-biting.

The Result

• We invited offers in excess of £7 million. The property sold for well over the guide price, to Arnold House School for them to expand and create a pre-prep feeder school.
• Arnold House School is a well-performing boys’ prep school a stone’s throw from Marlborough House, with a long history of 115 years. The School had been seeking premises to expand into for several years and were delighted to acquire the property.
• Whilst there was a large deal of interest from alternative uses, the greatest interest and two top bidders were both educational/nursery occupiers. It is positive for the surrounding community that the property was able to be sold to another educational provider for continued educational use.
• In addition, we achieved a fantastic result for our client, who can now more easily focus on their charitable objectives.