Case Studies

In July 2011, Macarthur Wilson advised Ropemaker Properties Limited, the property holding company of BP Pension Fund, on the sale of Hathaway Retail Park, Chippenham for £23,000,000 reflecting a net initial yield of 5.5%.

The 80,650 sq ft scheme comprises a terrace of 10 units which are fully let to tenants including Homebase, Tesco, Laura Ashley, Bathstore.com and Dreams. The park is located at the edge of Chippenham town centre and benefits from an Open A1 non-food retail consent.

Macarthur Wilson purchased the scheme on behalf of BP in September 2009 for circa. £50,000,000 and now advise the new owners, Aberdeen Asset Management, on their plans to work closely with the adjoining land owner, Ashtenne, to develop the site. Proposals include a new food store and residential development.

For more information please contact Philippa Carey or Richard Macarthur.

Most successful development situations start with a proper understanding of retailers requirements and needs. Through market knowledge we knew that B&Q were trading from a sub standard unit in Weston super mare. They also had additional pressures on their store in the town, with a forthcoming lease expiry, an open A1 retail planning consent, and a landlord who wished to redevelop their premises for a Shopping Park Style redevelopment. In addition a new Wickes was being built in a better position so they needed to acquire new space to protect their trading levels.

Therefore there were many reasons why B&Q would wish to relocate which made this town more of a priority when faced with other opportunities around the country . Once we fully understood the B& Q requirement on what was and wasn't an acceptable compromise, we identified 4 sites which after discussion with B&Q a site of circa 10 acres was identified as the preferred retailer location. The land had excellent main A road frontage, was in a central location easily accessible to the densely populated residential areas and yet still away from the areas of traffic congestion. Coterminous with agreeing to purchase the site on behalf of our client we negotiated with B&Q via an agreement for lease for a 100,000 ft.² B&Q retail warehouse together with a 20,000 ft.² garden centre and 30,000 ft.² builders yard.

Planning for this use was obtained at the same time that B & Q change their trading format and wished to downsize to their 55,000 ft.² mini retail warehouse format. Reacting to this in a positive fashion, planning was secured to subdivide the units and whilst a new lease was drawn up with B & Q deals were eventually agreed with Sports Direct, Aldi, Carpet Right and Comet on 15 year term certain leases. Prior to the sale of the completed investment an area to the front of the car park was identified as being suitable for POD redevelopment. Deals were successfully negotiated with Costa Coffee, and Frankie and Benny's at new record rents and construction of these units is due to commence in January 2012.

Our involvement in the site has lasted for over 10 years where we have taken an initial concept based on occupier demand and successfully negotiated our way through to a different scheme which has met occupiers changing demands and yet still delivered a healthy profit to the developer/landlord. What started out as a single let to a bulky goods operator has ended up with a multi-let Open A1 Retail Park with seven occupiers on good long leases with prospects for rental growth in the future.

For further information contact Richard Macarthur

Acted on behalf of Primark Stores Limited in negotiations with Land Securities to secure a flagship store in the successful Westwood Cross Shopping Centre.

The project involved negotiating with Land Securities to acquire a store for a new Primark flagship store of 70,000 sq ft, arranged on ground and first floors.

The negotiations involved agreeing a forward purchase price for the completed building built to Primark’s specification with Land Securities on a site adjacent to the TK Maxx store, Primark will become one of the anchor stores in the very successful West Cross Shopping Centre in Thanet (Kent).

The negotiations were concluded successfully and construction started on site in November 2011 with the planned date for opening in September 2012.

Primark Stores secured a long leasehold interest and will add to the thriving scheme with other anchor tenants including Debenhams and Marks & Spencer.

Macarthur Wilson have also been involved in other recent projects for Primark in Yeovil, Milton Keynes, Torquay and Cwmbran.

Macarthur Wilson are regularly asked to provide Expert Evidence to Independent Expert and Arbitrators by Halfords when they are unable to reach a negotiated settlement with their landlords.

In this instance, it was not possible to reach agreement in connection with the rent review effective from 25 March 2010 and an Independent Expert was appointed to resolve the dispute.

The passing rent was £108,735 and the landlord had quoted a revised rent of £190,000 per annum.

The dispute was dealt with by way of written Expert Reports and Points of Reply.

The Independent Expert determined that the rental value was no higher than the passing rental of £108,735 resulting in a saving of over £80,000 per annum from the landlords original rental quote.

As a consequence, Macarthur Wilson were also able to secure an Award of the Independent Expert's costs against the landlord.

For more information please contact Richard Biggs