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British Land to sell remaining Debenhams stores

British Land is preparing to sell the four remaining freestanding Debenhams stores in its portfolio.

The landlord has appointed CBRE to market the department stores in Bournemouth, Cardiff, Chelmsford and Chester.

A fifth freestanding store in Clapham Junction, south west London, was also recently sold by British Land for around £48m.

These follow the sale of its flagship store on Oxford Street, W1, in 2016 for £400m to a private investor.

British Land bought 23 freeholds and long leaseholds – totalling 3.28m sq ft – from the retailer in 2005, in a £495m sale-and-leaseback deal.

It has sold £2.4bn of assets since March 2014, £614m of which has been department stores.

The landlord has been reducing its exposure to the high street to increase its focus on mixed-use destinations and multilet shopping centres, some of which still include a Debenhams store.

Last month, Debenhams announced plans to close up to 50 underperforming stores over the next three to five years, after reporting a record loss of £491.5m in its preliminary financial results.

The closures will mean that 2.4m sq ft of space will be closed on the UK’s high streets, according to Radius Data Exchange.

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