Duchy of Lancaster spends £10m at Walker Park

THE Duchy of Lancaster has acquired two warehouse units at Walker Park, Blackburn, for £10.7m.

It has bought units A and B which have a total of 460,000 sq ft of distribution space.

The space is leased to two tenants, Michael Davies and Associates – a subsidiary of Bunzl – and Sally Salon Services, a distributor of professional beauty products with over 4,000 stores worldwide.

The leases expire between January 2024 and June 2027. The total passing rent is £578,000 which rises to £750,000 a year in January 2016 and £990,000 in June 2016.

Founded in the 13th century, the Duchy of Lancaster is a private portfolio of land, property and assets held by the Queen. It said the deal represented a capital value of £23.30/sq ft.

Mike Andrews, head of commercial property at the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “We are delighted to have acquired an interest in Walker Park, Blackburn, at an attractive initial yield, significant reversion and an extremely low entry cost.

“The building provides well located, high quality distribution space which combined with the leasing profile gives the Duchy of Lancaster opportunities to add significant value through active management.”

Andy Crompton, director at Riddell TPS who acted on behalf of the vendor, said: “Riddell TPS was instructed on the Walker Park scheme just over 12 months ago and in that period we successfully re-geared the Michael Davies & Associates lease, which incorporated the letting of a further 100,000 sq ft of space to them. The asset management strategy we devised and implemented enabled us to enhance the value of the investment significantly.

“We brought the investment to the market having completed our asset management strategy and at a time when investor appetite for well located and let distribution warehouses is very strong. The property was extremely well received in the market place which demonstrates that North West industrial stock continues to be buoyant and provides significant investment potential. Through our marketing process, we attracted multiple offers, all of which were in excess of our initial asking price.”

The identity of the vendor has not been disclosed.