GVA — the UK’s largest independent commercial property consultancy — has sold one of B&Q’s biggest outlets to an overseas investor for £20m.
The agent was appointed to market the home improvement site at White Rose Way last September and had put a £21m price tag on the Doncaster property.
The entire 11-acre site is let to the home improvement and garden centre chain and includes 109,000sq ft of retail warehousing space. B&Q has approximately 10 years left on its lease.
Andrew Foster led the team which marketed the site.
“This sale proves GVA’s expertise and track record in dealing with receivership and investment sales and is a fantastic start to 2014,” he said.
The site attracted considerable attention, but was finally sold to an unnamed foreign buyer represented by Chris Bampton, a director at Colliers International. “This warehouse is a dominant store for B&Q in the region and offers our client an attractive income yield as high 10 per cent by 2018,” he explained.
On the day the White Rose deal was announced contracts were also being exchanged for the sale of one Britain’s oldest shopping centres 38 miles away in Leeds. Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust has paid £16.2m to purchase the 50-year-old Arndale Centre at Headingley.
Built in the early 1960s and refurbished in the mid-1990s, the 125,834sq ft retail complex has over 20 tenants, including Wilkinsons, Sainsbury’s, and Pizza Express. Late last year Morrisons converted three units into one of its M local stores.
Schroder hopes to raise more than £17m from a share issue to pay for its Headingley investment and planned improvements.
“This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of focusing on assets offering good underlying fundamentals which are capable of adding value through a variety of alternative uses because of a strong and convenient location,” explained Schroder’s head of property, Duncan Owen.
“The Arndale Centre already offers high quality retail units which are delivering an attractive initial income yield which is immediately accretive to dividend cover,” added Owen. “There is also the potential to generate further income and capital growth from asset management of the upper parts of the property.”
Offices were added to the centre in 2009 as part of a £2.5m expansion and refit which also included a new canopy and improved paving, car parking and lighting.
Schroders was represented by local chartered surveyors Peter Lund and Partners. “The Arndale Centre has been bought at the perfect time. Headingley is going to improve dramatically in the next few years,” said Lund, “particularly with the proposed trolleybus scheme which hopefully will channel more shoppers into the centre.”
The nationwide chain of Arndale Centres were the first American-style malls to be built in the UK with a pioneering development opening in Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, in 1961.
Previous Post
UK Economy in Best Shape Since 2007 says Deloitte
