Metric Property Investments debuts at Damolly Retail Park, Newry
Published: 17 June, 2010
Metric Property Investments, the recently-floated specialist retail REIT, has made its its first acquisition with the £28.4m purchase of Damolly Retail Park, Newry, Northern.
Metric has exchanged contracts to acquire the 150,000-sq ft park from Corbo at a price reflecting a net initial yield of 6.25 per cent. The nine units are let to a range of tenants including B&Q, Smyths Toys, Carpetright, Next and Currys off a low average rental of £12.70 per sq ft. The park has a restricted Open A1 planning consent and is currently 93 per cent let by income with an average unexpired lease term of 14.3 years.
Metric has also acquired an adjoining development site with outline planning consent for a 14,000 sq ft supermarket. Potential further top-up payments of £6.5m will be due to the vendor once the vacant units have been let
Metric chief executive Andrew Jones said: “We have been rigorous in our investment strategy for Metric and this acquisition satisfies the key investment criteria we set out at the time of the IPO, of acquiring well let retail investments off low rents and where our retail customers trade successfully. High occupier contentment is the key to growing rents and exploiting the arbitrage between current income and sustainable rents.
“The park is let off low rents to a high quality line-up of tenants where we believe that we can extract further value by leveraging our core asset management skills to increase income, develop out the vacant land as well as look to widen the existing planning consent and further improve the tenant mix.”
Wilkinson Williams advised Metric Property Investments. Osborne King advised Corbo.
