Standard Life Investments, advised by ESH, have exchanged contracts with Aldi to occupy an amalgamated and refurbished anchor store at Hollywood Park alongside TK Maxx, Currys PC World and Dunelm.  Aldi have agreed to take a new 20,060 sq ft unit on a new 20 year lease later this year once construction works have been finalised.

The Wigley Group, advised by ESH, has sold its freehold interest in Vantage Trade Park in Coventry to Schroders’ Multi-Let Industrial Property Unit Trust (MLIPUT) for £5.07 million, reflecting a NIY of 5.4%.

The Park, which comprises a terrace of four units totalling 25,000 sq ft, was developed by The Wigley Group in 2015 and represents the best quality trade park in the city.  The property is let to Magnet, Formula One Autocentres and Adrenaline Motorcycles and produces a total rent of £291,262 per annum, reflecting a blended rent of £11.65 per sq ft. The investment offered a weighted average unexpired lease term of just over 13 years to expiry and over 8 years to break.

Standard Life Investments, advised by ESH, have sold the long leasehold interest in this major edge of town leisure and retail investment to a Threadneedle Investment Fund. It provides the only cinema and bowling alley in Southport with other occupiers including Dunelm, Matalan, Pets at Home, Poundstretcher, DW Sports and a number of restaurants such as McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Nando’s, GBK, Frankie & Bennys and Chiquitos.

Standard Life Investments, advised by ESH, have completed the sale of a former Homebase site on Church Way to the largest independent car dealership group in Europe, Arnold Clark.  The new owners plan to modernise and remodel the unit to accommodate a new car dealership for occupation in late 2018.

Barker & Stonehouse, the UK’s largest independent, family-run furniture retailer, has acquired two sites in Hove and Guildford as it looks to expand its representation south of the Thames.

At Old Shoreham Road, Hove, Barker & Stonehouse has acquired a former Currys unit. Comprising 20,000 sq ft of ground floor sales with planning secured for a 15,715 sq ft trading mezzanine, the property will be refurbished and totally reclad with extensive glazing.  It is due to open prior to Easter 2017.

Barker & Stonehouse has secured an assignment of the Currys lease and then has extended its lease to create a 15 year term with the landlords, who are a property fund managed by CBRE Global Investors. The new rent is £520,052 pa.

Advised by its retained property agent Edgerley Simpson Howe (ESH), the retailer has purchased a 1.4 acre site at Ladymead, Guildford, on a long leasehold basis from Surrey County Council. This site is at the gateway to Guildford, being at the junction to the A3 and Ladymead.

Planning has been secured for a 24,000 sq ft ground floor unit with 16,000 sq ft trading space on first floor level. This new store will be highly designed and strikingly modern with extensive glazing and a “living green” wall.

Barker & Stonehouse has currently eight stores across the north of England, a showroom in London’s Battersea and two outlets in York and Middlesbrough.

ESH is retained by Barker & Stonehouse on these and future acquisitions. Vail Williams advised Surrey County Council.

Mayfair Capital Property Unit Trust (MCPUT), as advised by Mayfair Capital and managed by Schroder Real Estate, has acquired a further £33.1m of assets

Mayfair Capital Property Unit Trust (MCPUT), as advised by Mayfair Capital and managed by Schroder Real Estate, has acquired a further £33.1m of assets taking the fund’s net asset value to approximately £340m.

Its latest purchases have seen the acquisition of The Trio Portfolio, a portfolio of three freehold ‘mid-box’ warehouse units located through the South-East; four restaurant investments on Cygnet Park in Peterborough and a single let office building on Trinity Park, Solihull.

The Trio Portfolio was acquired from clients of Eskmuir Properties and provides an opportunity for investment into strategically located ‘mid box’ warehouses leased off a low average rent and likely to benefit from improving occupational demand.

The restaurants in Peterborough were acquired from the Harmsworth Pooled Property Unit Trust and benefit from a low average passing rent and an attractive WAULT of 10.4 years to breaks and 17.7 years to expiries. Peterborough is expected to see substantial population growth as new houses are delivered in the vicinity of these restaurants.

In Solihull, MCPUT acquired the long leasehold interest of T3 Trinity Park from clients of Aberdeen Asset Management. The investment offers an attractive net initial yield, with a relatively short lease to CGI UK Ltd, and medium-term asset management potential. The building is in close proximity to significant major infrastructure including Birmingham International Train Station, the M42, Birmingham International Airport which has recently been extended, the NEC, the newly opened Resorts World leisure complex and the planned HS2 Birmingham Interchange.

James Feilden of Mayfair Capital commented: “These acquisitions are in line with Mayfair Capital’s thematic approach to investment which is shaped by analysis of changing technology, demographics, infrastructure and consumer behaviour patterns. These investments provide the combination of strong real estate fundamentals along with sustainable income streams with good reversionary potential and prospects for medium-term asset management.”

Graeme Rutter, Head of Schroder Real Estate Capital Partners commented: “We are delighted that Mayfair Capital has been successful in acquiring assets in our preferred market segments.  The continued strong investment performance of MCPUT is a further endorsement of our Partnership Fund model of backing talented advisors to implement our favoured strategies.”

MCPUT is a Jersey-domiciled fund for the pension fund clients of Schroder Real Estate. MCPUT’s investment objective is to provide total returns from investment in a diversified portfolio of UK commercial property and target a net distribution yield in the region of 5% per annum. MCPUT targets outperformance of its benchmark, the AREF/IPD UK Quarterly Property Fund Index All Balanced Fund Index (Weighted Average).

MCPUT has outperformed its benchmark, over one, three and five years to 30 June 2017.

Edgerley Simpson Howe advised MCPUT on the Peterborough acquisition.