Mormon chapel to move into City as church-owned property fund looks to fill empty office space

Covent Garden IP, an investment group owned by the Mormon church, revealed in its annual report that it will turn part of its Alder Castle property near London Wall into a chapel (JLL)

The City is to get its first Mormon chapel as an investment group owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints seeks to fill empty space in a property it bought in 2019.

Covent Garden IP, an investment group owned by the Mormon church, revealed in its annual report that it will turn part of its Alder Castle property near London Wall into a chapel after Lloyds Bank agreed to terminate its lease, leaving part of the building empty. It said the new chapel will open in February or March of 2024, having received change-of-use permission.

The fund, registered as a charitable company, said the change meant it didn’t make any monetary donations during 2022, despite receiving £5 million from rental income and service charges and delivering a cash surplus of £3.1 million. While it made a surplus, it reported an annual loss of £8.7 million, due to a major write-down in the value of the Alder Castle property.

The church-owned fund bought Alder Castle in 2019 for around £100 million, before the pandemic and the rise of work-from-home sent City commercial property values tumbling. After the write-down, Covent Garden IP said it is now worth £86.7 million.

There are four existing Mormon chapels in London, in Islington, Walthamstow, Muswell Hill and Abbey Wood.

Earlier this year, Covent Garden IP bought an Amazon warehouse in Wembley, which it intends to continue renting out to the ecommerce giant, for £74 million.

The fund says its goal is “to promote and further the religious and other charitable work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the United Kingdom”.

“CG does this by investing in and holding commercial property for the benefit of the Church,” the organisation says.