The Works are the latest occupier to sign up to Parkgate Shopping Park. They have taken a 10 year lease on a 5,400 sq ft unit and opened in May this year.

Other occupiers to recently take units on the scheme are Card Factory, Nandos and Greggs.

ESH act for BMO Real Estate on Parkgate Shopping Park.

Helical Retail has funded its Cortonwood Shopping Park, near Rotherham, to clients of Aberdeen Asset Management for £36.3 million, showing the buyer a yield of c.5.5%
Over 95% of the 80,000sqft scheme was pre-let ‘off plan’ to Outfit, H&M, New Look, River Island, Marks and Spencer Simply Food, C&J Clark, JD Sports, Wilkos, Poundland and a Frankie & Benny’s Restaurant.  The project benefits from an open A1 non-food planning consent with a relaxation for the M&S food sales.  Construction work starts on 9^th May with completion due in June 2017.
Jonathan Cox, Managing Director of Helical Retail, said, “This is one of only a very few funding deals in the market at present.  The pre-lettings of 10 out of the proposed 11 units to some of the strongest fashion retailers in this sector will arguably create one of the best shopping parks available in recent times.”
Robert Cass, Head of UK Property Transactions at Aberdeen Asset Management said, “We are delighted to be funding this opportunity with Helical Retail who have a strong track record in delivering high quality schemes. The retailer line up attracted is testament to their confidence in the scheme and will build on the already very successful retail destination at Cortonwood “.
Edgerley Simpson Howe acted for Helical Retail on both the lettings and funding.

London Metric has acquired a strategic development site in Ipswich from supermarket giant Tesco.

The investors already own the 47,848 sq ft Matlesham Heath Retail Park opposite and have earmarked the three-acre site to become a new 30,000 sq ft retail park, 20,000 sq ft of which has been pre-let to Wickes.

ESH and Morgan Williams advised London Metric on their purchase of the freehold and letting to Wickes.

Advised by ESH, KFIM have purchased the Wickes in Chatham from LondonMetric Property Plc for £6,900,000.

This purchase represents a net initial yield of 5.64% and provides a long income of over 17 years following completion of a 15 year reversionary lease. The tenant has also recently completed a re-fit of the property to incorporate their new style and shopfit layout and include the new ‘Pay + Collect’ service. The 26,142 sq ft unit is let at £15.87 per sq ft and benefits from an open A1 non-food planning consent.

Edgerley Simpson Howe (ESH) are delighted to announce the appointment of Karl Norman as a partner.

Karl has over 17 years experience in the out of town retail sector having previously been an equity partner of Harvey Spack Field and most recently a Senior Director at CBRE.

Karl represents a broad range of landlord and developer clients and also advises a number of major occupiers on their property requirements. In particular he has strong relationships with Mothercare, New Look and Starbucks.

The scheme totals 101,975 sq ft of broadly bulky good retail space and has since benefitted from a number of further planning relaxations

ESH advised Altum Capital on their acquisition of the Hough Retail Park located on the A34 Litchfield Road, Stafford. The retail park is occupied by B&Q, Home Bargains, Bensons, Maplin, SCS and Argos and provides a long AWULT of over 10 years to expiry and 9.5 years to breaks.  The asset provides a total annual rent of £1,520,905 reflecting an average rent per sq ft of less than £15.00. Altum Capital purchased the freehold of the property for £21,050,000 reflecting a net initial yield of 6.77%.