Capital & Regional’s troubled Mall shopping centre fund has bought itself some breathing space with the sale of three of its centres – albeit at a reduced price – and a corporate refinancing which means the fund is no longer in danger of breaching its loan-to-value covenants.
Three centres in Chester, Epsom and Edgware have been sold to the Carlyle Group for £286m. The properties were valued at the end of March 2008 t at £339.8m.
Carlyle brought the properties with its investment partner Bride Hall Holdings and will inject them into its Carlyle Europe Real Estate Partners III Fund. The purchasers expect to invest up to £50m in the portfolio and have already identified several asset management opportunities.
The Mall, Chester is a 243,000-sq ft single-level covered scheme is situated in Chester’s historic centre which dominates the city’s retail provision. Attracting around 200,000 shoppers weekly, the centre is home to over 80 stores including River Island, H & M, Monsoon, Topshop/Topman and Habitat.
The Mall, Edgware provides approximately 190,000 sq ft of retail and dominates Edgware’s retail offer. Attracting around 140,000 shoppers weekly, the centre is fully let with tenants including Sainsbury’s, Marks & Spencer, WH Smith and Boots. A masterplan is being drawn up with the centre forming part of wider a retail-led, mixed-use development.
And The Mall, Epsom comprises 362,000 sq ft of retail and dominates Epsom’s retail offer with an average weekly footfall of approximately 140,000. The centre is anchored by House of Fraser, Marks and Spencer and Waitrose and other tenants include Next, H&M, New Look and Boots.
Carlyle MD Robert Hodges said: “These three acquisitions, the first for CEREP III since its closing, represent strong additions to our UK portfolio and underline our intentions to take advantage of opportunities that arise to expand our retail portfolio. Our planned development programmes will significantly increase the attractiveness of each centre to tenants and shoppers alike and underline that we have both the expertise and firepower to identify and exploit opportunities to create value in the retails sector.”
Conroy Laurie, Strutt & Parker and Savills advised the purchasers.
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