Beehive Centre in Cambridge Sold For ?109m

RNS Number : 5321N

British Land Co PLC

01 October 2012

 



Orchard Street Buys Beehive Centre in Cambridge from British Land for £109 million

Orchard Street Investment Management LLP has acquired The Beehive Centre in Cambridge from British Land for £109.2 million, which reflects a net initial yield of 5.25%.

The 238,000 sq ft part open consented retail scheme was acquired by British Land in 1998. The scheme, located near Cambridge city centre, comprises 16 retail units and is anchored by a 70,000 sq ft Asda food store. Other retailers include M&S Simply Food, Toys R Us, TK Maxx, Carpetright, Dreams, DW Sports Fitness, Next Home, B&M Retail, Maplin and HomeSense.  The park is fully let at an average rent of £25 per sq ft with an average lease length of 14 years.

Charles Maudsley, Head of Retail for British Land, said: "The Beehive Centre is a great example of British Land's asset management capabilities. We have completed seven lettings in the past three years and built two new units. As a result, the park's entire original tenant line up has been completely replaced during our ownership.  This sale also demonstrates the strength of institutional demand for quality retail parks." 

Chris Bartram, Chairman at Orchard Street, said: "Opportunities to acquire major well let retail assets are rare, and in this case the property has the added advantage of being in a dominant position in one of the most vibrant and fast growing cities in the UK.  We feel the property is a great addition to our client's portfolio which increases the volume of shopping centres and parks that we manage to £1.4 billion and we are sure that it will make a very positive contribution to Fund performance, as well as remaining a key element within the shopping offer of the city of Cambridge for the long term."

Enquiries:

Investor Relations

Sally Jones, British Land                                                            020 7467 2942

John Humberstone, Orchard Street                                              020 7494 8860

Media (British Land)

Jackie Whitaker, British Land                                                      020 7467 3449

Emma Hammond, FTI Consulting                                                020 7269 9347

Pip Wood, British Land                                                               020 7467 2942

Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group                                                020 7251 3801

Media (Orchard Street)

James Verstringhe, Tavistock Communications                            020 7290 3150

Amy Walker, Tavistock Communications                                     020 7290 3150

Notes to Editors

About British Land

British Land is one of Europe's largest Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) with total assets, owned or managed, of £15.8 billion (British Land share £10.3 billion), as valued at 31 March 2012. Through our property and finance expertise we attract experienced partners to create properties and environments which are home to over 1,000 different organisations and visited by over 300 million people each year. Our property portfolio is focused on prime retail locations and Central London offices which attract high quality occupiers committed to long leases. Our occupancy rate of 98.1% and average lease length to first break of 11.3 years are among the highest of the major UK REITs.

Retail assets account for 61% of our portfolio with around 27 million sq ft of retail space across 89 retail parks, 97 superstores, 12 shopping centres and 10 department stores. The retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats and our active asset management delivers space which is attractive and meets the needs of both retailers and consumers. Over 80% of our retail parks have open A1 consent.

London offices, located in the City and West End, comprise 34% of the portfolio (which will rise to an estimated 40% on completion of current developments). Our 7 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share) and Regent's Place in the West End. We have committed £1.2 billion to create Central London's largest committed office development programme which will deliver 2.3 million sq ft of high quality space by 2014, including a 700,000 sq ft building at 5 Broadgate, the 610,000 sq ft Leadenhall Building in London's insurance district and a 500,000 sq ft mixed office and residential scheme at Regent's Place in the West End.

Managing our environmental, economic and social impacts is central to the way we do business and deliver value for our shareholders. We assess the issues that matter most to us and our stakeholders on an on-going basis and, where appropriate, adjust our strategic focus to reflect this. For the coming year we have adjusted our priorities to focus on managing our buildings efficiently, supporting communities, developing sustainable buildings and engaging our staff. For each of these priorities we are targeting our efforts and resources at initiatives where we can achieve the biggest impacts.

Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com.

About Orchard Street Investment Management

Established in 2004, Orchard Street Investment Management LLP is a leading specialist commercial property investment manager, focused on the UK market. It acts on behalf of institutional clients world-wide to advise on investing in and the active management of property assets, including industrial, retail warehouses, offices and shopping centres. Orchard Street currently has assets under management totalling £3 billion.

 

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