Countryside Properties has completed three deals, buying Chelmsford Citys football ground for around £1.5m, selling a £10m portfolio to SPP, and disposing of a small office building to Kent Councils pension fund.
Countryside snapped up the 1.7 ha (4.2 acre) football ground after a previous purchaser defaulted. The club moved from the city centre site over a year ago.
Rick de Blaby, Countryside Commercials managing director, said the company would talk to the council about developing the site: “We have in mind a development which will include a modern health and fitness club aimed at the family market.”
The SPP portfolio comprises three retail developments. The properties are in: Bury St Edmunds, at 36 Buttermarket where Countryside converted the former Suffolk Hotel, and sold on a yield of 5.8%; Chichester at 62/63 East Street which has been let to Boots and sold at 5.3%; and Streatham, south London where the yield on the converted Pratts department store is 8.75%.
The office building, on Station Road in Leatherhead, has been let to Countrysides own south Thames residential company. The sale price of £1.335m reflects a yield under 7%.
EGi News 15/01/98
