TSB Pensions is to forward fund a retail warehouse scheme in Margate for Wickes Building Supplies in the sum of £3.14m. The 32,000-sq ft, two-unit property will be located on Margate Road, next to the Sainsbury superstore. Wickes will pay a rent of £8.50 per sq ft on a 25-year FRI lease. Hill Samuel Property Services advised TSB, while Wickes Properties represented the retailer.
IBM UK Pensions Trust has spent £2.08m on a long-leasehold industrial estate at Southmoor Park, Wythenshawe, south Manchester. Sold by Morrison Developments, the estate consists of seven units totalling 58,000 sq ft. Some 20,000 sq ft is let to Dan Transport; the remainder is vacant. IBM has negotiated rental guarantees for the unlet units which take the initial yield on the deal to 11.4%. CNC Jones advised the developer, while Hillier Parker acted for IBM.
Lynton has let the final 14,000 sq ft of accommodation at its Pioneers Industrial Park, Beddington Farm Road, Croydon, Surrey, to VHL Communications. Vodaphone subsidiary VHL is to pay £6.50 per sq ft on a 10-year lease, with just over a year rent free. Letting agents on the 33,000-sq ft development were Stiles Harold Williams and DTZ Debenham Thorpe.
Portsmouth City Council is bringing to the market the largest single-storey building to be offered in south Hampshire for three years. Chesterton has been retained to market the 117,000-sq ft office building situated on Northern Road, Portsmouth, which was designed by Sir Norman Foster. Former occupier IBM has relocated to its UK HQ at North Harbour elsewhere in the city.
