Shopping centre developments and re-developments have been fairly prominent of late, with owners of these commercial properties keen to take advantage of the uplift in consumer confidence by increasing their retail and leisure offer. Now, residents of Wakefield are hopeful that a similar project may soon be underway at the local Trinity Walk Shopping Centre following its sale.
Former owners Ares Management, along with venture partners Sovereign Land and Shepherd Construction, confirmed that the shopping centre has been sold to Orion European Real Estate Fund IV, sponsored by Orion Capital Managers, this week. Although the exact sum paid by the new owners has not been revealed, reports indicate that the transaction was worth around £150 million.
It has taken quite some time for Trinity Walk Shopping Centre to get to its current position, as although construction work began in 2007, the building in its current form was unable to open until May 2011. This is because original owner Trinity Walk Wakefield was forced to enter administration in early 2009 due to a withdrawal of funding by main lender Anglo Irish Bank.
The project was rescued by the consortium which went on to complete the development after a significant stalled period which lasted for several months. This was not unusual in the recession, with many projects remaining half-built due to a lack of financial backing, but caused issues for Wakefield’s local economy and therefore required a kick-start so work could resume as soon as possible.
Ares Management partner, Wilson Lamont, expressed pride in his firm’s involvement in the ambitious project.
He said; “Since acquiring Trinity Walk during the depths of the recession, we are delighted to have completed its construction and created a highly successful, dominant retail destination with market-leading tenants that attracts well over 10 million shoppers a year.”
Trinity Walk was one of only 3 shopping centres that opened in the UK in 2011, and found its units were in high demand with 90 per cent of the 550,000 square feet of floor space pre-let. Today, Debenhams remains the development’s anchor store, with other big high street names such as Next, New Look and Argos also retaining a presence.
While plans regarding a potential extension are yet to be released, Orion Capital Managers have expressed an interest in channelling investment into a large-scale project. In fact, managing director Aref Lahham indicated that the new owners would be following the vision of the consortium in implementing changes to the shopping centre.
He said; “We look forward to progressing the expansion plans that have already been identified by Ares and Sovereign Land.”
Should an extension go ahead, it will presumably provide space for a multiplex cinema and a number of restaurants in keeping with the current trend for retail complex redevelopments. Hopefully, this will allow the new owners to enjoy an even greater amount of success and see Trinity Walk become an even more dominant force in the retail industry.
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