Seneca and Perscitus JV buys £10m head office property

SENECA Partners has teamed up with Perscitus Advisers, the family office of private equity veteran Jon Moulton, to acquire the Lakeside 5000 office building in Cheadle.
 
The 40,000 sq ft property at the heart of Cheadle Royal is single-let to Balfour Beatty as the firm’s regional headquarters on a long-term lease.
 
Although the purchase price has not been revealed, it was being marketed by the Manchester office of Cushman and Wakefield for close to £10m.

The acquisition represents an expansion in to commercial property for Seneca’s property division, which has historically focused on property bridging loans, with the deal taking Seneca’s total property exposure to over £40m.

Steve Charnock, head of property investment at Seneca, said: “Lakeside 5000 represented an excellent opportunity to acquire a modern, well-located office building, leased to a large blue chip organisation. As well as our established debt and equity investment platforms, we are continually on the lookout for new strategic investment opportunities such as this, on behalf of our investors.”

Craig Barton, director of investment agency at Cushman & Wakefield who led the disposal, said: “Our client was delighted with the speedy performance of the buyer. The asset represented quite a binary investment for them being single let, but due to the high quality nature of Cheadle Royal Business Park we attracted competitive interest during the sale process.”
 
Edgemoor Estates advised the JV throughout the deal and is working on further acquisitions.