Accrington Arndale up for sale
ACCRINGTON’S Arndale Shopping Centre has been placed on the market with a price tag of over £16.7m.
The 139,000 sq ft centre has 47 units – 85% of which are occupied by national retailers including Marks & Spencer, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, New Look, WH Smith and Superdrug.
The centre is curently owned by the wealth management arm of Swiss bank UBS. It bought the building five years ago for £37.5m – more than double its current sale price.
Darren Hutchinson, director of UK Investment at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors, which is advising UBS on the sale, said there were development opportunities available for any potential new owned, including an opportunity to develop out an extension to the side of the building.
Plans were submitted last year to add a large supermarket and car park in a bid to entice Tesco away from a rival project, but which could be used to bring in another operator.
Hutchinson said: “We’ve worked hard over the last few years to successfully increase occupancy, introduce new retailers to the town and conceive the idea to extend the centre, all against a tough economic background.”
He added that the centre was now “pretty much fully-let”, barring units which were occupied by retailers that are currently in administration. It currently attracts gross rents of £1.95m, or net rents of £1.68m after landlord’s deductions. This would offer an investor a net initial yield of 9.5%.
“We have now reached a point where we feel it is time for someone else to use these foundations to take the centre further forward and ideally progress the development to the side to further enhance the town centre.”
