British Land has acquired the Surrey Quays Leisure Park from Aviva Investors in a deal worth a mammoth £135 million.
Surrey Quays is one of Southwark’s premier leisure destinations and at present counts big name brands such as Odeon Cinemas, Frankie and Benny’s and Hollywood Bowl as key tenants.
The acquisition means that British Land has now been able to complete its assembly strategy at Canada Water, having become owners of both the Surrey Quays Shopping Centre and Hamsworth Quays – the former Daily Mail General Trust Printing Works – over the past five years.
Altogether, the acquisition of these key sites has cost British Land around £250 million and has handed control of almost 50 acres worth of prime mixed use regeneration site to the firm.
British Land is currently in the process of creating a new mixed use town centre for the area, in partnership with Southwark Council, as a means of further unlocking the potential of the location which is well served by transport links and will become a major beneficiary of the upcoming Crossrail project at Canary Wharf.
British Land chief executive Chris Grigg (pictured) says; “This acquisition completes our assembly of a significant £2 billion world class development opportunity in the heart of one of London’s major regeneration zones.
“We look forward to continuing our partnership with Southwark Council to create a vibrant new mixed use office, retail and residential campus for Canada Water including a new town centre.”
The ambitious project will be master planned by architecture firm Allies & Morrison, which has already begun to draw up plans for a number of mixed use facilities. It is believed that up to 7 million sq ft of office, leisure, cultural, retail and residential space could be created thanks to British Land’s involvement, along with a number of properties earmarked for use in the community and higher education spheres.
Aviva Investors representative Jonathan East believes that British Land will be the ideal company to progress the previous owner’s high levels of ambition for the strongly located site.
He says; “We are pleased to have completed the sale of Surrey Quays Leisure Park to British Land which has enabled us to secure a strong return for our policyholders.
“Having laid the groundwork for a comprehensive redevelopment of the site we were able to benefit from the buoyant market for residential sites around London, particularly for such a large site in a recognised area of opportunity.
“Having been involved since funding the original development of the leisure park in 1996, we have witnessed significant changes to Canada Water over the years – British Land have ambitious plans for the area and we are happy to hand the baton over to them to progress the comprehensive regeneration.”
