Shopping centre sale

Cordea Savills, the international property investment manager has sold Erneside Shopping Centre, Enniskillen, Northern Ireland on behalf of a corporate pension fund client (“the Fund”) for £34.25 million.

The 163,000 sq ft shopping centre comprises 34 retail units and 666 car parking spaces.  It is located in the centre of Enniskillen, the largest town in the region, and the dominant retail location.  The centre, which is more than 97% let by floor area, is anchored by Marks & Spencer and Next which is currently being extended to include both their fashion and homeware formats.
  

The asset was acquired by the Fund in 1995 and has evolved with two comprehensive phases of extension and remodelling in 1998-2000 and 2006-2008.

In March 2015 Cordea Savills’ management of the above corporate pension fund client was recognised  at the IPD/IPF Property Investment Awards, where it received the award for the best-performing Segregated Pension Fund (above £350 million, December 2014).

Savills plc acted as Investment Agent and Managing Agent for the disposal of Erneside Shopping Centre.

Lucy Winterburn, Director of Investment at Savills IM, commented:

“Erneside has played a large part in the Fund’s performance success over the last 20 years and is unrecognisable from the investment that we purchased in 1995.  We were keen to take advantage of the favourable market conditions capitalising on strong investor interest in Northern Ireland shopping centres.   We have already identified a number of opportunities to re-invest the sale proceeds to develop other assets in the portfolio both on a pre-let and speculative basis .”