Fiera Real Estate and Packaged Living have bought a £200m development at a former Toys R Us site in Southampton.
The land acquisition is the ninth from the Fiera Real Estate Opportunity V UK from Fiera and CBRE GIP. It brings the total committed to over £100m.
The fund has completed a deal to purchase the 4.8-acre Station Square. The site has been earmarked for development as part of the Mayflower Quarter, with 275 build-to-rent flats, a 70,000 sq ft office and a hotel.
It is located directly opposite Southampton Station and is less than a five-minute walk from the city centre.
Development at the site has been brought forward by the council, following the collapse of the Toys R Us business and property company in 2018. The council as the freeholder had provided a 125-year lease for the retail warehouse, which was built in the 1980s. In 2006 the council agreed a 30-year lease to Toys R Us, with Aviva Investors as the long leaseholder.
When the site fell to receivers at Moorfields, FI Real Estate Management was appointed to asset manage the estate, working in partnership with Southampton City Council.
The pair worked up plans to drive forward commercial and residential development to replace the 17,281 sq ft store on the Western Esplanade. In 2019, Southampton revealed plans for the mixed-use development, and signed off a £27m investment for the office.
Packaged Living will now develop the site in four phases, aiming for net zero carbon construction. The deal is the BTR platform’s third with Fiera, and brings the portfolio to over 2m sq ft of development with 4,000 homes.
Ed Ellerington, managing director at Packaged Living, said: “Redevelopment of the site is at the heart of Southampton’s wider Mayflower masterplan and will create a vibrant and dynamic gateway to the city from the station.”
Southampton has just two operational BTR assets, including Patrizia’s Bow Square and Grainger’s Gatehouse Apartments, with a number of developments in the pipeline. This year, Tellon Capital received consent for 519 BTR homes, and Bargate Shopping Centre and Sovereign Centros’ £250m Leisure World development is likely to include BTR as part of the 650 homes planned.
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