Boultbee Land and Protego Real Estate Investors have teamed up to buy a 1m sq ft development opportunity in Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
The pair is understood to have beaten off competition from British Land, Lend Lease, Manchester-based Modus Properties and a number of private Irish investors to buy Dunedin’s Darwin, Pride Hall and Riverside shopping centres.
Scottish investment group Dunedin put the shopping centres up for sale through Jones Lang LaSalle and Lunson Mitchenall in February for £110m, reflecting a 5.15% initial yield.
Boultbee and Protego have paid close to £115m for the schemes.
Dunedin has already got the go-ahead to turn the 250,000 sq ft Darwin Centre and 110,000 sq ft Pride Hall shopping centre into a single 460,000 sq ft mall.
It has also drawn up plans to redevelop Riverside Mall, which sits behind Pride Hall, into a 400,000 sq ft scheme, anchored by a department store.
Debenhams has already shown interest in the development.
The centres are likely to be held in a new shopping centre fund between Protego and Boultbee.
The joint acquisition follows Protego’s acquisitions of the 150,000 sq ft Arndale Centre in Accrington, Lancashire, and 195,000 sq ft Newlands Centre in Kettering, Northampton, from Boultbee last year.
Boultbee’s asset management arm EFM manages all of Protego’s shopping centres.
References: EGi News 09/03/06
