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| June 2011 |
| The Rotunda leisure scheme, Kingston upon Thames |
| We advised UK Commercial Property Trust on the purchase of The Rotunda Leisure Scheme in Kingston upon Thames for £50.7 million. UKCPT is the largest UK focused commercial property trust and is managed by Ignis. |
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The property extends over 170,000 sq ft, is fully let and has an annual rent roll of £3.3m. There are 11 tenants including Odeon (14 screen cinema), Tenpin Bowling, David Lloyd Fitness, Pizza Express and Prezzo. The Rotunda is located in the heart of Kingston upon Thames, one of the top three retail destinations in Greater London. |
| The Maples team comprised Paul Burke (corporate) and Mark Bryan/Neil Sagoo (real estate). |
| Curo Property, the seller, was advised by Morton Fraser LLP, led by Christian Hook (corporate) and Hugo Allan/Keir Mitchelmore (real estate). |
Paul Burke commented:
“We are delighted to have assisted UKCPT on its first acquisition in the leisure sector. This deal was unusual because the title to the property was split in a corporate structure which involved both a unit trust and a limited partnership. As a result the transaction required both the transfer of units in the unit trust and the transfer of the legal title to the property.” |
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| April 2011 |
| Rockspring UK Value Fund |
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| Maples Teesdale acted for Rockspring's UK Value Fund on the acquisition of a portfolio of office and warehouse properties from Alderley Group for over £40m. The portfolio is let to 19 tenants and produces an income of more than £5.5m a year. It includes 469, 910 sq ft of warehouse space and 184,855 sq ft of office space predominantly in the South East. |
A team of eleven lawyers at Maples Teesdale, led by Declan Power, acted on the purchase.
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| March 2011 |
| St. George's Retail Park, Leicester |
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Maples Teesdale LLP (led by property partner Shehrnaz Dolasa and corporate partner Paul Burke) acted for UK Commercial Property Trust, managed by Ignis Real Estate on the purchase of St. George’s Retail Park, Leicester, from a fund managed by JP Morgan Asset Management for £49.9m. |
| St. George’s Retail Park is an Open A1 retail park (with food) prominently located close to Leicester city centre, extending to 165,419 sq ft and 522 car spaces, the tenants include Wickes, PC World, Currys, Comet, Aldi, Pets at Home, Next, Brantano, Toys rUs, Mothercare and KFC. |
| The acquisition was structured as a corporate deal involving the purchase of units in a Luxembourg company that required significant due diligence and close co-ordination with tax advisers and foreign counsel. |
| Robert Boag, Senior Investment Director at Ignis Real Estate and manager of UKCPT, commented “The purchase of St George’s Retail Park represents a significant investment for UKCPT and completes the investments of the £150m equity raised by the Company in February 2010. This latest acquisition increases UKCPT’s exposure to retail warehousing, which is a sector we believe will continue to offer strong returns for the Company. Although a lot of good work has been undertaken by the previous owners, we feel there are further asset management opportunities that will improve the profile of the Park and with that the rental and capital growth prospects”. |
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| January 2011 |
| Rockspring UK Value Fund |
| Rockspring Property Investment Managers instructed us on the acquisition of two development projects for their UK Value Fund: |
| Centurion House, London EC3 |
| Rockspring acquired this1980’s office building located in the heart of the City of London from CBRE Investors for £22.05 million. It is currently multi-let to seven tenants. Vacant possession of this 61,000 sq ft building is expected to be secured in July 2011. |
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Rockspring will work with its development partner, Charterfield Asset Management, to submit a planning application to comprehensively reconfigure and refurbish the building to create modern office space, with the aim of releasing it to the occupational market in early 2013
View extract from The Lawyer >> |
| The Arrows Site, Brooklands, Weybridge, Surrey |
| Contracts to acquire a site in Weybridge for £4.25 million from Mercedes Benz have been exchanged. The site currently has existing planning consent for a single 130,000 sq ft office building. Rockspring, together with its development partner Exton Estates, will submit a revised planning application for the site for two office buildings better suited to the occupational demand within the region. Once planning has been received, the scheme will be speculatively built out for delivery at the end of 2012. |
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| November 2010 |
| Legal & General LPI Income Property Fund acquire Tesco supermarket in Merseyside |
| We advised Legal & General on its acquisition of a Tesco supermarket in Merseyside as the third acquisition for L&G’s recently launched LPI income property fund. |
| Legal & General Property announced on 24th November the acquisition of a Tesco supermarket in Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside on behalf of its LPI (Limited Price Inflation) Income Property Fund. |
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The LPI Fund is a new client for Maples Teesdale and this deal marks the LPI Fund's third acquisition upon which Maples Teesdale has acted and brings the fund’s total investment to over £40 million. The LPI Fund was launched earlier this year and Maples Teesdale’s involvement builds upon its established relationship with Legal & General’s Managed Fund. |
| The Tesco supermarket was purchased from Liverpool Victoria for £13.7 million. The deal follows the acquisition of two recently completed office buildings let to the Welsh Government on 25-year leases, located in Newport and Swansea, benefitting from annual RPI-linked uplifts upon which Maples Teesdale also advised. |
| Neil Sagoo, assisted by Clare Sivill, acts for L&G’s LPI Fund. Lawrence Graham (Richard Miles) acted for Liverpool Victoria. |
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| October 2010 |
| Legal & General Property £146M LXB3 Portfolio Acquisition |
| We were instructed by Legal & General Property (“LGP”) on its acquisition of the LxB3 retail and leisure portfolio from a consortium led by Lloyds Banking Group and West Coast Capital for £146 million. The portfolio comprises seven retail/leisure schemes located across the UK. The properties include retail warehousing, department stores, food stores and a leisure park. |
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| The acquisitions are in-line with LGP’s strategy to capitalise on rare UK market opportunities where it can use its specialist in-house retail development and asset management skills to extract future growth. The properties are located in Tunbridge Wells, Cheltenham, Coatbridge, Darlington, Northampton, Farnham and Faversham. |
| Fountains Retail Park, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent |
| Fountains Retail Park in Royal Tunbridge Wells is a retail warehouse development scheme, comprising six retail units and five restaurants. The retail units have just completed and are fully let with Marks & Spencer anchoring the scheme. The restaurant units are currently under construction, with practical completion scheduled for January 2011. |
| House of Fraser, Cavendish House, 34 - 48 The Promenade, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire |
| The freehold House of Fraser department store is situated in the prime retail area of Cheltenham. The store is linked to Regent Arcade. |
| Tesco Extra, Faraday Retail Park, Coatbridge, Lanarkshire |
| This Coatbridge supermarket is let to Tesco Stores Limited and provides LGP with an opportunity to access a dominant food store with strong rental growth prospects. |
| House of Fraser, 11/18a Blackwellgate, Darlington, County Durham |
| This property is situated in the centre of Darlington and comprises a House of Fraser department store with warehouse storage accommodation. It is one of the town’s landmark buildings. |
| Sixfields Leisure Park, Northampton |
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Sixfields Leisure Park is the principal leisure park in Northampton. The park comprises a cinema, two restaurants, a pub, a bowling alley and a gym, fully let to six tenants, including Cineworld, Pizza Hut, Bella Italia, Cannons Health Club and Megabowl. |
| East Street, Cambridge Place and South Street, Farnham, Surrey |
| This freehold interest in a Sainsbury’s foodstore and eleven shop units is located on East Street in the centre of Farnham. |
| Norton Ash Garden Centre, Faversham, Kent |
| This is a 24 acre development site which has planning permission for a 145,000 sq ft retail and leisure scheme. The development planned for Faversham has been modelled on the successful Bicester Avenue Garden Centre, Bicester. |
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| Forward Funding transactions at Enfield and Crick |
| We were instructed by Legal & General Property on the Forward Funding transactions at Enfield and Crick. |
| Enfield was a development by Graftongate of a distribution unit on Innova Park for John Lewis Plc. L&G forward funded the transaction, acquiring the land from Kennet, funding the development cost, and entering into the lease with JLP following PC. |
| Crick was a development by Gazeley of a pet food manufacturing facility in Crick for Butcher's Pet Care Limited. L&G forward funded the transaction, acquiring the land from Gazeley, funding the development cost and will enter into the lease with Butcher's Pet Care following PC. |
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We were delighted that L&G were awarded "Fund/Property Company of the Year" at the prestigious annual Industrial Agents Society ("IAS") Awards in part as a result of these two significant transactions. |
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| Sale of Merton Studios in South London for Fremantle Media |
| We advised Fremantle Media on the sale of the former Bill Studios at Merton in South London. The sale included some 45,000 costumes, the sets including a pub and police cells, to Panther Securities. |
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| The studios have been dominated by The Bill's filming schedule since 1989, but will now be made available to third party producers. |
| Fremantle instructed us earlier in the year on the substantial lease negotiations at their Headquarters in Tottenham Court Road. |
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| May 2010 |
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| UK Commercial Property Trust purchase Junction 27 Retail Park |
| Shehrnaz Dolasa led a team at Maples Teesdale on behalf of client UK Commercial Property Holdings Limited on the purchase of Junction 27 Retail Park, Birstall, Leeds for £56.63 million. The property is a goods retail park comprising 9 retail warehouse units and 1 restaurant (122,376 sq feet of space with over 500 car spaces). Tenants at the retail park include DSG Retail (t/a Currys), Comet Group, Furniture Village and TGI Friday. |
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| April 2010 |
| UK Commercial Property Trust acquires Shrewsbury shopping centres |
| Maples Teesdale (led by Shehrnaz Dolasa) and Berwin Leighton Paisner (led by John Kelsey) have advised on the sale and purchase of The Charles Darwin Centre, the Pride Hill Shopping Centre and the Riverside Shopping Centre and Medical Centre. All three properties are located in Shrewsbury and have been sold for an aggregate purchase price of over £61m. The purchaser is Maples Teesdale’s long-standing client, the UK Commercial Property Trust Limited, the UK’s largest UK Commercial Property Investment Trust. |
| The shopping centres comprise 123 retail units with an approximate floor area of 43,131 square metres (464,282 square feet) on a 2.487 hectare site. The title is comprised mainly of freehold titles. The current gross annual rent receivable in respect of the properties is approximately £5.3m per annum. The purchase price reflects an equivalent yield of 8%. |
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| March 2010 |
| Purpose-built Distribution Centre in Widnes |
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Maples Teesdale acted for Legal & General’s Managed Fund on the acquisition from Stobart Group, represented by Hammonds, of a 528,000 sq. ft. brand new purpose-built distribution centre in Widnes pre- let to a major food retailer together with Stobart’s adjacent inland port terminal on a 25 year sale and leaseback deal. Total price for the two assets was in the region of £61 million. The distribution centre will service the retailer's northern "fresh" operations and Stobart will be the transport contractor for the retailer at the unit. Liam Buckley led the Hammonds team and Declan Power led the Maples Teesdale team. |
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| 5-7 Chancery Lane |
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| Mark Bryan and James Barnett acted for UK Commercial Property Holdings Limited on the sale of the freehold of 5-7 Chancery Lane for £49.3 million. The purchaser was a new overseas fund for whom the property was its first acquisition.
The circa 84,000 sq ft property is let to solicitors Lewis Silkin LLP at a rent of £3.4 million per annum rising to £3.75 million in 2013. |
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| November 2009 |
| Maples Teesdale advises USA on Embassy sale |
| Maples Teesdale's client, the US government, has exchanged unconditional contracts on the sale of its London embassy to Qatari Diar, represented by Herbert Smith. |
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| The Maples Teesdale team was led by Mark Bryan and Neil Sagoo with assistance from Mark Harryman. |
| The commercial terms remain confidential but commenting on the transaction Neil Sagoo said "This deal is an important step in realising the USA's plans to relocate its London embassy to the Nine Elms Lane development zone in Wandsworth". |
| The Herbert Smith team was led by Donald Rowlands with assistance from David Rosen. |
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