St Modwen has launched the sale of its 725-acre Trentham leisure and retail estate in Staffordshire, a disposal the company hopes will attract bids of more than £70m.
The investor and developer, taken private last year by private equity group Blackstone, has owned the Trentham Estate for the past 25 years. The site includes an outlet shopping village, garden centre, monkey forest attraction, a high ropes Treetop Adventures course and a water sports centre. It attracts some 3.25m visitors a year.
Announcing the marketing of the estate, chief executive Sarwjit Sambhi said: “We are proud of the investment and commitment we have made to the Trentham Estate over many years, bringing the gardens back to life and creating a highly popular shopping and leisure destination… We are now targeting an organisation or individual that can continue to invest in the business and act as custodian to support its ongoing success.”
St Modwen has had the estate marked as a non-core disposal target since early 2021. At that point it was valued at roughly £57m, accounting for most of the company’s retail portfolio.
Speaking to EG at that time, Sambhi told EG of the sale’s timing: “We want to get footfall back to where it was pre-Covid, which I don’t think will take us that long, and we’ll choose the right time within the next 18-24 months to market it. I’m very confident that we’ll get a buyer for Trentham. It’s a great asset, it’s just that we’re probably not the right owners for it.”
Leisure and retail property adviser Christie & Co is handling the sale.
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