5 April, 2017
Alternatives push fuels £250m of transaction activity in Q1
Three key acquisitions made during the period have been in line with DTZ Investors’ focus on investing into leisure and retail assets offering relatively long-term income underpinned by strong fundamentals. The Printworks, Manchester, a landmark leisure scheme anchored by an Odeon IMAX cinema, with a further seventeen food and drink venues arranged over four floors (£108m); The Buttermarket Centre, a 235,000 sq ft leisure and retail scheme located in Ipswich town centre (£54.55m); and 99 King Street, Maidenhead, a hotel and retail investment opposite Maidenhead train station, offering an weighted average unexpired lease term of 19.6 years (£11.50m).
Completed sales during the quarter successfully capitalised on the strength of investor demand for industrial assets, which offered the opportunity to dispose of smaller lot sizes and recycle capital into new investment opportunities: for example the MXL Centre, Banbury (£12.9m) and Drum Street Industrial Estate, Birtley (£9.5m).
Having secured planning consent for a complete refurbishment and reconfiguration of the building, including the addition of 11,000 sq ft of rear extensions to increase the office floorspace; Folgate Court, an office building in the heart of Spitalfields, was sold for £24.5m.
