Irish bank puts Royal Exchange up for sale with £75m price tag
THE ROYAL Exchange looks set to change hands after its Irish owners put it up for sale with a £75m price tag.
The iconic site above Bank station is being sold off by The Irish Bank Resolution Corporation, which said yesterday it has hired property advisers CBRE to market the 450-year-old building. The Royal Exchange was built in 1565 and has been twice destroyed by fire, first during the Great Fire of London in 1666 and then in 1838, with the new one opened by Queen Victoria in 1844.
It is now home to restaurants, as well as shops housing luxury brands including Mont Blanc and Smythson. It was bought by Anglo Irish Bank Private Banking in 2005 for £53m.
CBRE’s Phil Cann said he expects the building to fetch more than £75m and has already had several expressions of interest.
“Interest has principally come from the overseas market but there are also UK-based asset managers looking to get their hands on a strong asset,” he said.