Meyer Bergman buys Burlington Arcade for £104m
Published: 26 October, 2010
Meyer Bergman and Thor Equities have bought the UK's oldest mall, Burlington Arcade, for £104m
Developed almost 200 years ago, the 37,000-sq ft building benefits from a healthy footfall, with between 3 and 4 million visitors passing through each year. Running parallel to Bond Street, it is ideally located for luxury retailers requiring smaller shop formats that give them a footprint in a high-profile prime location, or alternatively for more established brands to differentiate product lines or launch pilot projects.
It has the additional attraction of offering competitive rents compared to neighbouring Bond Street, not only in terms of Zone A rates but also overall affordability. Bond Street has recently been revealed as the most expensive retail location in Europe, with the most recent letting reported at £925 Zone A space and new offers rumoured to be in excess of £1,000 Zone A.
The acquisition has been structured as an 80/20 joint venture but US Investor Thor has an option to increase its stake to 50 per cent by summer 2011.
Markus Meijer, chief executive and founder of Meyer Bergman commented: “The acquisition of the Burlington Arcade represents a unique opportunity to acquire one of London’s most iconic retail assets. It follows our two recent Greater London acquisitions of the Bentall Centre in Kingston and the Exchange Centre in Ilford, where we were able to take advantage of prevailing market conditions and the specific attributes of the two assets to target superior returns on prime UK assets”
