Redditch town centre is set for a £60m boost from Thornfield and US investment bank Lehman Brothers.
Thornfield Properties, the year-old joint venture set up by the developer and the US bank, last week completed the £95m purchase of the town’s 64,100 sq m (690,000 sq ft) Kingfisher shopping centre.
Jason Marcus, group corporate director of Thornfield, said: “We are looking at injecting a further £60m.”
Plans, which will be phased, include increasing the floorspace to over 92,900m2 (1m sq ft) by adding a leisure element and another department store. Debenhams is believed to be interested.
The existing centre, anchored by Marks & Spencer, Allders, Bhs and Tesco, stands on freehold land totalling 11.5ha (28.5 acres). Marcus said the plans included “changing the format of current retail and extending the prime pitch,” as well as dealing with 43 of the 166 shops which are vacant.
The Kingfisher centre’s price reflects an initial yield of 6% on net income of about £6m pa.
Richard Ellis St Quintin, Egan Lawson and Douglas Stevens & Co acted for Thornfield. The deal was financed by debt from the Bank of Scotland.
EGi News 15/03/99
