The joint venture behind the transformation of a Wandsworth shopping centre is in line to make an £80m profit on its sale.
The Wandsworth Partnership a jv between Portfolio Holdings, Deutsche Bank and Apollo Real Estate Advisors has put the 525,000 sq ft Southside shopping centre in Wandsworth, SW18, up for sale through Strutt & Parker. They are looking for offers in the region of £190m-£200m, an equivalent yield of 5.75%.
The jv bought the centre in 2000 for just £40m and has spent around £70m refurbishing it. A source said: “Apollo has decided to sell because it’s a good time to do so. Prices are high, there’s not much stock and there’s money out there.”
The former Arndale centre was extremely run down before the jv took it over and had not been upgraded for more than 30 years. It reopened as Southside in June 2004 with tenants including Waitrose, H&M and Next, a whole floor of restaurants, a Virgin Active gym, a 14-screen Cineworld cinema and more than 1,200 car parking spaces. Zone A rents quadrupled from £30 to £120 per sq ft.
UBS and Standard Life are expected to show interest.
Southside is the second large shopping centre to come on the market this year. Last month the Whitgift Shopping Centre Partnership put its 50% share of Croydon’s Whitgift centre on the market for £200m a 6.2% yield.
Heavy demand last year saw £5.2bn of malls change hands.
References: EGi News 07/02/05
