KKCG Real Estate Group paid £291 million for 1 St James’s Square, the West End building that has served as BP’s London headquarters since 2001. The seller is Hong Kong’s Lifestyle International Holdings, which picked up the 0.54-acre freehold for £250 million in a 2020 sale-and-leaseback — implying a 16% premium. On the other hand, the building now carries planning consent for 17% more floor area.
That expansion option makes sense especiall when you learn that BP vacates in April 2028; after that, a Foster + Partners retrofit will strip the 1990s-era shell back to its frame, add two storeys and a roof terrace, and deliver 11,200 sqm of net office plus terracing across three levels. LBBW/Berlin Hyp and Aareal Bank are providing acquisition finance; YardNine, the London development manager behind EightyFen and Fifty Paddington, is running the redevelopment. The Hong Kong landlord clearly didn’t feel comfortable taking on the redevelopment and releasing risk.
It’s the second London office buy for Karel Komarek’s group in under a year — KKCG quietly acquired The Burlian at 80 New Bond Street from Hines for roughly £195 million in late 2025. That brings its combined London outlay to about £486 million. The UK platform is run by Peter Holden, poached from Partners Group early this year.
Komárek’s not the only Czechoslova with a view of the Thames. Penta Real Estate launched a £1 billion residential JV with Ballymore — a 52-storey Canary Wharf tower, Embassy Gardens units, and a Brentford scheme totaling 1,000-plus flats. HB Reavis sold Worship Square in the City for £185 million, while Daniel Kretinsky’s EP Group has completed a £3.6bn takeover of the Royal Mail. Czech capital accounted for 36% of all CEE-region investment in H1 2026 — and the domestic markets can no longer absorb it. London looks like a good place for the surplus.
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