US Embassy sale will net Duke of Westminster £500m
Published Date:
10 October 2008
By Claire Gallagher
THE third richest man in the country – Chester resident the Duke of Westminster – stands to gain another £500 million.
Security-conscious US embassy staff plan to move from Grosvenor Square in Mayfair, London, to an industrial area south of the River Thames.
Grosvenor Estate, owned by the Duke, who has a fortune of around £6 billion, has leased the building to the embassy.
Now the embassy will be put up for sale 'almost immediately' and estate agents have put a value of £500m on it.
Developers have been expressing interest in using the site for a luxury hotel or flats.
The Duke lives at Eaton Hall, Eccleston with wife Natalia and three children.
The planned move for the embassy comes after a worldwide review of the safety of US embassies as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the War on Terror.
A number have moved to secure locations outside city centres.
The current embassy was always an oddity in the US diplomatic set-up because of the lease arrangement with the Duke of Westminster. Virtually every other major mission is owned outright by the US.
His property company, the Grosvenor Group, declined to comment on the move.
The full article contains 209 words and appears in Evening Leader Wrexham newspaper.
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Last Updated:
10 October 2008 11:14 AM
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Source:
Evening Leader Wrexham
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Location:
Wrexham
