Angel Gardens to tower ahead after £128m deal

A LANDMARK residential property development of more than 450 apartments at a 34-storey building is moving forward after a  £128m deal.

Apache Capital Partners, the London and Gulf-based real estate investment management firm has bought the Angel Gardens scheme, which is part of the NOMA regeneration project near Victoria Station in Manchester, from the Co-operative Group and partner Hermes.

Angel Gardens, a joint venture with developer Moda Living has full planning consent.

The 34-storey property, totaling 520,000 sq ft and comprising 458 apartments for rent, will comprise state of the art design features including a seven-storey glazed foyer, a cinema room, gym, four restaurants, retail units, digital integration and a multi-functional roof terrace which can be used for five-aside football, tennis or as a yoga practice space.

Apache Capital and Moda Living were advised on the acquisition by CBRE who also helped to create the investment platform.

 Richard Jackson, co-founder and managing director of Apache Capital Partners, said: “Our joint venture partnership with Moda Living has now secured a £1bn premium PRS pipeline of prime UK city centre sites. Apache Capital has the financing available to bring this to market and has already secured £128m that fully funds our Angel Gardens development.

 “Our investors are clearly seeing the potential to capture attractive income growth and superior capital returns in our unique offering, through the quality of our developments and services and our first mover advantage in a significantly under-supplied sector.”

He added: “The PRS (private rent sector) market in the UK is worth £900bn and growing, yet remains fragmented and presently overwhelmingly dominated by small, private-let landlords. We are focused on that significant gap between increasing tenant demand and the undersupply of institutional grade and scale of stock in PRS, which will be the next institutional assets class, as we have seen with the student accommodation market.”

Johnny Caddick, director of Moda Living, said: “Our ethos, and why our PRS portfolio will stand the test of time, is based on building a brand and quality of product that is currently not available in the regions, of which Angel Gardens is a prime example.”