Columbia Threadneedle is considering a £224m sale of Croxley Business Park in Watford.
The fund manager has lined up CBRE and Tudor Toone should it decide to formally market the 725,000 sq ft park. The asking price reflects a 6.35% yield.
It is understood that some soft marketing has already taken place in the Far East and Ascendas REIT, which this week completed a deal to buy the £207m Project Owl portfolio from Oxenwood Real Estate and Catalina Hodgins, had been in discussions to buy Croxley but has now withdrawn.
A spokesman for Columbia Threadneedle said: “We are considering our longer-term strategy, but there are no immediate plans to sell Croxley Park.”
Unlike most business parks, all of the 13 buildings are within one ownership, which is seen as an advantage when managing it. The park contains 535,000 sq ft of offices and 190,000 sq ft of industrial space.
Tenants at the 75-acre park, near Cassiobridge Underground station, include Smith & Nephew, Kodak, Medtronic and GE Money. The existing offices and warehousing provide a passing rent of around £11m pa with an average unexpired lease term of 6.5 years.
Despite the booming market for logistics, given rental levels in the area are around £30 per sq ft for offices and £5 per sq ft for warehouse space, there is potential for value uplift through conversion of the industrial to offices. Consent is also in place for a new adjoining 350,000 sq ft office campus.
Over the past year the UK business park market has seen a resurgence as buyers look for large opportunities to deploy capital in assets that provide higher yields than similarly lumpy deals in central London. Most notably, Singapore’s Frasers Centrepoint last year bought a £686m four-asset portfolio from Oaktree Capital Management.
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