LaSalle Investment Management has hoisted a for sale sign over the Brunswick shopping centre in Bloomsbury, WC1, to tap into buoyant investor appetite for the retail sector.
The fund manager, on behalf of the Royal Mail Pension Plan, has lined up JLL to bring the 290,000 sq ft mall to market next month. It could seek around £110m – a 4.5% yield.
The Grade II listed mall is anchored by Waitrose and tenants include River Island, New Look, Carluccio’s and Space NK. It was designed by architect Patrick Hodgkinson in the 1960s and was refurbished in 2006 in a project overseen by Levitt Bernstein Associates.
The opportunity is expected to attract interest from a wide range of parties keen to buy a piece of prime London retail. UK REITs, institutional investors and overseas money are all likely to eye the asset.
All areas of the buyer spectrum, together with the debt markets, are seeking to deploy equity in the shopping centre investment market, according to Savills.
One source said: “The Brunswick shopping centre will go quite well. It is a Waitrose-anchored scheme in a really affluent area. The nearby King’s Cross area is coming on and residential values are more than £1,000 per sq ft. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Brunswick goes above asking.”
The proposed sale comes more than seven years after the Brunswick centre was last traded. Hermes bought the mall on behalf of the Royal Mail Pension Plan in May 2007 for £115m – a 3.5% yield – from Allied London. LIM won the pension fund mandate from Hermes in 2010.
LIM is also currently marketing the Royal Mail Pension Plan’s entire 40% stake in the £450m Highcross shopping centre in Leicester, with Hammerson additionally offering a 10% share.
All parties declined to comment.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
