Citivale joint venture acquires £4m industrial site

A JOINT venture involving Leeds’ Citivale has acquired a Glasgow development for £4.14m.

LC Industrial is a venture between Lumina Real Estate Capital and Citivale, established in June 2014. It has acquired the site on Glasgow’s Dixon Blazes Industrial Estate from CBRE Global Investors.

The acquisition of SouthPoint, which represents a net initial yield of 8.7% , is LC Industrial’s first in Scotland.

SouthPoint is let to four tenants, including Travis Perkins and Matthew Clarke Wholesale, with one vacant 8,650 sq ft unit remaining, bringing a current annual income of £379,120, with the average unexpired lease at 7.9 years.

LC Industrial began with an initial investment fund of £50m and the venture is building a portfolio of industrial assets.

James Appleton-Metcalfe, managing director at Citivale, said: “We are very pleased the acquisition of SouthPoint as the first Scottish acquisition into the portfolio.

“It offers the right blend of location and tenant profile, combined with asset management opportunities of refurbishment, void and rental growth. We are really looking forward to implementing our business plan here.”

“On a more general note, our £50 million investment fund means we are on the lookout for further acquisitions across the UK.

“We want to capitalise on the strong growth in the UK regional economy by buying secondary assets and repositioning them through comprehensive refurbishment, re-gearing leases and minimising voids.

“We have a strong pipeline of deals already, including a number of off-market transactions.

“Our combination of local and specialist knowledge, speed of movement, entrepreneurial energy and a professional, diligent and analytical style enables us to locate exactly the kind of industrial property that our joint venture with Lumina is looking to invest in.”

Jeff Carson, senior associate at Lumina Real Estate Capital, said: “We were attracted to SouthPoint by its excellent motorway location, strong tenant profile and the ability to enhance income with the letting of the vacant unit.

“While this is our first LC deal north of the border, it also represents another acquisition by LC Industrial following recent purchases across the north of England.”

Two other two purchases are the 86-acre Humber Enterprise Park at Brough, near Hull and an 110,000 sq ft industrial building at South Elmsall, near Wakefield.
BNP Paribas Real Estate advised LC Industrial and Knight Frank represented CBRE GI on the SouthPoint deal.