Property investors pile into Manchester
THE acquisition of two prominent Manchester buildings has taken the total value of property deals in the city this week to well over £100m.
HIMOR’s 72,500 sq ft Ship Canal House office block in King Street and Urban Splash’s Smithfield Building in Oldham Street have both been sold to institutional investment funds.
Dublin-based Ardstone Capital has paid £26m for Ship Canal House, a net initial yield of around 6%, and Aegon, based in London, has bought the Urban Splash’s residential and retail building for an undisclosed sum.
The deals follow the £57m acquisition of Chancery Place by NFU Mutual and the sale of the Lowry Hotel in Salford for around £40m.
Craig McDonald, managing director of Ardstone Capital UK, said: “We are very pleased to continue the acquisition programme of AROF (Ardstone Regional Office Fund) with the purchase of our seventh asset following our recent purchase in Birmingham and we will continue to look for further opportunities.”
Tenants at the building include Virgin Money, law firm Gateley and BNP Paribas. The Smithfield Building has around 80 apartments and 19 retail units let to companies such as North Tea Power, Forbidden Planet, Oxfam Originals, Carharrt, and Piccadilly Records. Urban Splash said that when it bought the block in 1995 its largest tenant, the retailer What Everyone Wants, was in administration, the ownership of the building was with administrators, and the mortgagee was the insolvent bank BCCI.
Chairman Tom Bloxham said: “When we first bought the building it was a ruin, it was not in the best condition and I am proud of how we have since successfully redeveloped it, sold off all of the residential units, fully let the commercial units to a range of occupiers and helped it become the flagship building in what is now Manchester’s Northern Quarter. The Smithfield Building and Urban Splash were instrumental in establishing, and indeed naming, the Northern Quarter. It’s great to see what was once terrible part of Manchester attract great retailers and become a great destination.”
WHR and Lewis and Partners acted for Urban Splash as selling agents. Kames acted for Aegon. GVA advised Ardstone on the Ship Canal House purchase and WHR acted for HIMOR.
