Great Portland Estates plc (branded as GPE ) is a British property development and investment company . It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . The firm switched to Real Estate Investment Trust status when REITs were introduced in the United Kingdom in January 2007.
4-741: GPE was founded by Howard and Basil Samuel in 1959 to invest in properties originally developed by the Dukes of Portland . It was listed on the London Stock Exchange later that year. It acquired the Ilex Estate in 1997. In 2007 the company converted into a real estate investment trust . In April 2018 it was announced that KKR would be taking up 57,000 square feet of space in GPE's new office development in Hanover Square . The move
8-849: The West End such as the West side of Hanover Square and in the City of London such as the Bloomberg Headquarters. At 31 March 2023 Great Portland Estate's property portfolio was valued at circa £1.9 billion. Basil Samuel Basil Samuel (1912–1987) was the founder of Great Portland Estates , one the United Kingdom 's largest property businesses. After training as an estate agent with J. Trevor & Sons , Basil Samuel went into partnership with his brother, Howard, in 1934. Together they started buying up properties in
12-565: The West End. He served in the British Army in the rank of Captain during World War II and in 1945 returned to London to resume developing properties. In the case of at least one of these properties, Basil and Howard worked in joint venture with Lord Samuel of Wych Cross , their cousin. In 1959 Basil Samuel established Great Portland Estates and expanded it into one of the United Kingdom 's largest property businesses. Samuel
16-742: Was the biggest single deal in Mayfair for a decade. Great Portland Estates was rebranded to GPE in November 2021. GPE is based in London and the great majority of its assets are in London. It mainly owns office buildings, with a smaller amount of retail property. The largest group of properties is in the Marylebone district of Central London just to the north of Oxford Street , in and around Great Portland Street . The company also owns properties in
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