Landlord GPE — which owns a massive chunk of property in the West End of London — has released its report for the year to the end of March and said it saw a strong leasing and operational performance as the area bounced back.

It said it completed £7 million worth of deals in the year for retail space as it saw “resurgent demand”. That included Regent Street seeing the completion of two flagship retail lettings to The North Face and Joseph.

The North Face has traded successfully at GPE’s Walmar House site since 2015 and signed a 10-year lease on an additional 10,000 sq ft. Further south on Regent Street, Joseph signed a lease for a new store located at Kingsland House, completing the repositioning of the retail offering at the building.

And at Mount Royal, 508/540 Oxford Street, TK Maxx signed up for its latest London flagship store. The store comprises 22,500 sq ft across the ground and first floor levels, with 70 ft of Oxford Street frontage.  This will be TK Maxx’s second store on Oxford Street.

In April, the landlord also let the retail space at 141 Wardour Street, to luxury retail brand, Represent, for its new London flagship store. The space comprises 5,000 sq ft across two floors, which will be its second store globally to date, following its LA opening in West Hollywood.

GPE’s vacancy rate is now only 1.3% (after being 2.5% this time last year) with rental values up 3.8%.That said, the value of its £2.3 billion of offices and stores fell by 12% in the period. But the company said property prices are bottoming out.

This means that while its own portfolio value has dropped, other properties are becoming available at attractive valuations and it unveiled a plan to raise £350 million in a fully underwritten rights issue to pursue “compelling new investment opportunities”.

It will use £168 million of the proceeds to invest in its Soho Square Estate and a new development, The Courtyard.

It has acquired The Courtyard, WC1 — which mixes retail and offices — via a property swap with the City of London Corporation (CLC). It swapped its interest in 95/96 New Bond Street but with the property it’s taking on being of a higher value, GPE will make a net cash payment to CLC of £10.4 million on completion in January 2025.

The New Bond Street property it’s giving up is the prime corner building currently partly occupied by LK Bennett’s flagship and offices.

GPE aims to deploy the rest of the proceeds in new acquisitions over the next 12-18 months, subject to market conditions.