St Modwen sells final Crosby asset for £1m

Telegraph House on Moor Lane, a 18,700 sq ft retail and office building, was due to go to auction but a sale has now been agreed before the property was put under the hammer.

St Modwen said the sale of the building, which has eight tenants occupying a combined 10,000 sq ft, was due to complete this Friday.

The buyer was David Cain, the Crosby-born managing director of Crossfield Exclusive Developments, which has announced plans to revitalise Crosby Village high street following the acquisition of the site.

Telegraph House is the last of St Modwen’s Crosby assets to be sold after the developer appointed Lambert Smith Hampton to dispose of its Crosby Village assets last March. 

Crosby Village, which St Modwen bought from Sainsburys in 2016 for £2.7m, also comprised the two Glenn Buildings, the Home Bargains block, and a Superdrug unit.

At this time it was announced by LSH that Telegraph House was not part of the deal but that St Modwen was “progressing interest with a national discount food store” for the site.

The assets were marketed at a guide price of £6.4m and were sold in September 2019 to a private investor.

Over the last 18 months St Modwen has been looking to shed non-core assets from its portfolio.

In a statement in November 2019, St Modwen said it had sold half of its remaining non-core retail assets, including Crosby Village, for £36m and 17 other non-core assets for £29m.

“Looking forward, we aim to sell the remaining £74m non-core assets over the next two years,” the firm added.

In Kirkby, St Modwen bought a town centre site covering 12 acres and containing 87 shop units from Tesco in 2015 for £36m. St Modwen sold the site last November to Knowsley Council for £43.8m after the developer had drawn up detailed plans and secured planning permission.

Avison Young and Pinsent Masons advised on the Telegraph House sale.