Secretive property investor Eliasz Englander is making his second major foray into retail with the £98m purchase of a Bristol shopping centre.
Englander, who ranked 62nd in EG’s Rich List 2004 with a £158m fortune, has agreed to buy CIT’s 300,000 sq ft (27,9000m2) Yate centre near Bristol through his Englander Group at a 5% initial yield.
The closest rival bid came from Tesco, which had hoped to buy the centre to extend its store, which anchors the property.
Yate is one of the final two Charterhouse properties that CIT bought for £307m in November 2002.
Englander Group bought its first retail property last March with the £70m purchase of the 465,000 sq ft (43,000m2) Broad Street Mall in Reading.
The company is associated with trophy assets. In 1999, it bought Holborn Links from Hammerson for £118m, and it was also linked with attempts to buy Shell Mex House on London’s Strand later the same year.
Bids on the Manor Walks shopping centre in Cramlington, Northumberland, the final ex-Charterhouse property, were also called this week. Insight, Mutual Finance, LxB and Sellar Properties all submitted offers. Mutual Finance is tipped to win the battle, paying £75m – £4m in excess of the asking price.
DTZ, which is selling both centres, refused to comment.
