Rockspring has bought Royal Bank of Scotland’s Orchard shopping centre in Taunton, Somerset, for its UK Value 2 LP fund.
Rockspring is paying £27.5m for the property, which was refurbished and rebranded in 2009.
It covers 144,037 sq ft with 60 shops and eight homes.
Tenants include New Look, Waterstones, WHSmith, Superdrug, Santander and Ernest Jones, with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 5.03 years and ERV of almost £2.5m pa.
UK Value series fund manager Richard Bains said: “The Orchard shopping centre is a prime scheme in a dominant regional town, making it a strong fit with our retail strategy. In addition, there is clear scope for us to generate further value from the property with the development potential for an extension to enhance the leisure facilities in the town centre. This is a worthy addition to the UK Value 2 portfolio and takes the aggregate value of the assets in the fund to over £200m, with significant equity available for investment in 2015.
RBS global director of real estate restructuring Neville Paterson said: “During the two years of RBS’ ownership we have undertaken a series of successful asset management initiatives, including the completion of a number of significant lettings to well-known brands such as Bill’s Diner, Anytime Fitness, L’Occitane, as well as various lease regears, which have helped to reposition and improve the perception of the centre.
“In addition, the clarification of the development opportunity at the centre has further optimised the value upon sale and led to a positive result for the bank. This is an example of picking the right buyer, who delivered on the purchase within the agreed three-week timetable.”
Rockspring was advised by KLM; Savills acted for RBS.
