NEW INVESTORS ARRIVE IN NOTTINGHAM

Office News

A new joint venture set up by STAINTON, together with a group of Kuwaiti Investors advised by WW Advisors, has acquired Chapel Quarter Nottingham from Royal London Asset Management’s Scottish Life Fund for £20m representing a yield of 8.75%.

Chapel Quarter is a 145,000 sqft prime mixed-use island scheme in CBD Nottingham comprising four floors of offices, six prime retail units and a 120 bed Holiday Inn Express hotel.

The property is 91% let to nine tenants including Thomson Reuters, Barclays and Global Radio with an average lease length remaining of 14 years.

The prime retail units include restaurants ASK, CHINA CHINA, FAT CAT CAFÉ, LAS IGUANAS & MAN’S

James Longden, Chief Investment Officer, Stainton Group commented:

“We spent many months working with the vendor Royal London Asset Management to ensure the successful completion.  We are very pleased to have made this investment in the Nottingham market and we strongly believe in the fundamentals that Nottingham has to offer as a location.

“We look forward to working with the local, national and international tenants in improving and consolidating Chapel Quarter’s position and image in the centre of Nottingham.”

David Swan, Managing Director, WW Advisors commented:

“We are delighted to add Chapel Quarter to the rapidly growing list of properties we have advised as we build our client’s portfolio. Our strategy has seen the recent acquisition of three quality assets, each of which will deliver a good return, require low capital expenditure, and with active asset management, we believe will perform very well.

“We continue to seek more opportunities, both on and off market, where we can secure assets that fit our model and work with local partners to add value for our client.”

STAINTON, as well as being an equity partner has also been appointed Asset Manager to the new joint venture.

The owners are planning a refurbishment of the reception area and exterior of the building to improve the overall image of the building.

The recently purchased investment also offers the chance of an immediate increase in income as there is 12,975 sqft of vacant space available within the mix used scheme.

James Hartley of letting agent FHP commented on the space “It is a fantastic space and really stands out within the city. It is such a prominent position and the available specification within the building is high – no matter what the use be it retail, leisure or office, we can accommodate a requirement in the space as it can be easily and quickly altered to suit an occupiers needs.”

There are three areas available for letting:

• On the first floor, a vacant office comprising 5,238 sqft, this unit can be connected with B alongside, or C below via a private internal staircase, to create either a 10,943 sqft unit or a larger 12,943 sqft unit on two floors  – with private street entrance
• Adjacent to A above, a shell expansion space of 2,000 sqft – which can connect to either A above, or C below
• On the ground floor a 5,705 sqft unit (currently behind boarding) that has extensive street frontage onto Maid Marian Way and can offer either an office space with its own front door, a restaurant or retail unit – which can extend into units A and B above as well

There are various options of combining the spaces AB / AC / ABC / BC via an internal staircase, thus offering very adaptable and flexible layout options

Local agents FHP are being appointed as lead letting agents

Local firm Paragon Interiors are being appointed as contractors for the refurbishment programme

Debt finance was provided by Deutsche Postbank AG

The joint venture was advised by Pardoe Properties and CBRE