Standard Life Spends $150M on Retail Parks

LONDON-Continued investor interest in out-of-town retail is underlined by Standard Life Investments’ £88.95 million purchase of two Midlands retail parks from LaSalle Investment Management. Standard Life has bought the Crossley Retail Park in Kidderminster, Worcestershire and the Princess Alice Retail Park in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham.

The 203,393-sf Crossley Retail Park is located on St Mary’s Ringway in Kidderminster . It has a bulky goods planning consent and is currently let to B&Q, MFI, Carpetright, SCS, Klaussner, Comet, Halfords and Staples until 2025. The current rent roll of £3.3 million ($5.6 million) per annum reflects rents of £15.50 ($26.40) to £17.50 ($29.80) per sf. The sale price reflects a net initial yield of 6.24%.

And the 107,664 sf Princess Alice Retail Park on Princess Alice Drive, Sutton Coldfield is let to Marks & Spencer, Boots the Chemist, DSG Retail, Internationale, Holiday Hypermarket and Pizza Hut on 25-year leases dating from 1999. The scheme has an open A1 non-food planning consent a food consent for one of the units. It produces an annual rent of £1.87 million ($3.2 million) at rents of £19.95 ($34) to £23.50 ($40) per sf with rent reviews due in 2004. The net initial yield is 4.43% .

Standard Life was advised by Edgerley Simpson Howe & Partners, and LaSalle Investment Management was advised by Wilkinson Williams.