Three North West retail parks sold
Landsec has sold Derwent Howe Retail Park in Cumbria and Blackpool Retail Park, while Titan Investors purchased Ringtail Retail Park near Ormskirk.
The Landsec deals
Landsec, a London-based real estate company, sold the 120,000 sq ft Derwent Howe Retail Park in Workington to Supermarket Income Reit. Columbia Threadneedle purchased the 155,720 sq ft Blackpool Retail Park. The sale of both parks was for a cumulative £54.3m, which Landsec represented a 15% premium to the March 2021 book value for the properties. Landsec said the sale meant an average yield to the purchases of 7%.
The disposals are part of Landsec’s new growth strategy, which involves getting capital in areas it has no competitive advantage and allowing the company to reinvest those funds into new schemes.
“In line with our strategy we have been increasing portfolio recycling as we look to make the most of Landsec’s strengths and invest in areas with greater growth possibilities,” said Phillip Davies, head of investment for Landsec.
“Retail parks represent a subscale sector for us and a clear opportunity to realise capital that can be better deployed in areas where we have a competitive advantage such as central London and urban mixed-use regeneration projects.”
Landsec still owns seven retail parks, but none are in the North West.
Derwent Howe Retail Park is not the only new purchase in the area for Supermarket Income Reit. The investor recently spent £95m to acquire a series of North West grocery stores.
The Titan Investors purchase
Kroll administrators, acting on the behalf of Bentley Incorporated, sold the Ringtail Retail Park in Burscough to London-based Titan Investors.
Ringtail boasts 101,300 sq ft. Barnfield Construction built the retail park in three phases starting in 2014 for Bentley. Investec Bank funded the project. Current tenants include Aldi and B&M.
The Lancashire retail park has a 15-year weighted average lease term, with 65% of income coming from grocery units and 80% from essential retailers. Titan said that a quarter of the park’s income was on inflation-protected leases.
