Americans grab Old Spitalfields

An American company has snapped up east London’s historic Old Spitalfields Market for more than £100m.

The Grade II-listed property, constructed on the site of an old Roman cemetery, has been sold to the New York-based Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, which also owns Boston’s historic marketplace Faneuil Hall.

It is paying around £105m to the Irish company Ballymore Properties, who redeveloped the market, now a hub of restaurants and fashion shops, after buying it in 1998.

Michael Alpert, the president and vice-chairman of Ashkenazy, said the company was “excited that our first acquisition in London is a property with such profile, similar to other properties we have throughout the United States”. He added: “This the first of many planned acquisitions in the London market.”