Legal & General is frontrunner to buy a Waitrose warehouse in Milton Keynes from Gazeley, in a deal that would set a record price and yield for a shed.
L&G has agreed to pay more than £110m – a 4.7% yield – for the 940,000 sq ft Waitrose national distribution centre at Magna Park in Milton Keynes.
Other bidders include Standard Life, M&G Real Estates and Canada Life.
Waitrose completed a 30-year letting deal with Gazeley for the shed last month, paying around £5.75 per sq ft on a 25- to 30-year lease.
It follows last year’s 670,000 sq ft prelet to John Lewis at Magna Park, which Gazeley forward sold to Aviva Investors for £74m, reflecting a 4.9% yield – a record for the shed sector.
In January 2012 Tesco sold its 930,000 sq ft rail-connected distribution centre at the site of the former Courage Brewery in Reading in a sale-and-leaseback deal for £110m – the highest price paid for a single industrial asset in the UK.
JLL is advising Gazeley; Cushman & Wakefield is representing L&G.
nick.whitten@estatesgazette.com
