Leeds shopping centre snapped up by investment giant
ONE of the oldest and best known shopping centres in the country has been acquired in a £16.23m deal.
The Arndale Centre in Leeds has been bought by Schroder Real Estate Investment Trust. The Headingly-based shopping centre on Otley Road is made up of 125,834 sq ft of multi-let retail, leisure and office property, with 23 tenants, including Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Wilkinsons and Pizza Express.
The real estate investment firm, which is paying for the acquisition by issuing shares representing 10% of its existing share capital to raise £17.2m, said it sees scope to invest further in the centre and sees it as a key site to benefit from the prosed NGT trolleybus scheme.
Duncan Owen, head of Property at Schroder Property Investment Management, said: “This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of focussing on assets offering good underlying fundamentals which are capable of adding value through a variety of alternatives uses because of a strong and convenient location.
“This property already offers high quality retail units which are delivering an attractive initial income yield which is immediately accretive to dividend cover. There is also the potential to generate further income and capital growth from asset management of the upper parts of the property.”
KPMG acted as fixed charge receiver for the centre and appointed Savills to sell it in October.
Leeds-based property consultants Peter Lund and Partners acted for Schroders in the acquisition of the property.
Arndale Centres were the first American-style malls to be built in the UK. Shortly after the end of World War II, Arnold Hagenbach and Sam Chippendale, an estate agent from Otley, set up a company called the Arndale Property Trust, the name being a portmanteau of “Arnold” and “Chippendale”.
