This article was updated on 8 January to correct the price of the Rotherham park and therefore the total.
Two retail park sales have been finalised at a total of around £100 million as the year starts strongly for the sector.
NFU Mutual has bought Springvale Retail Park in Orpington in South East London for a price believed to be around £45 million, or a 7.25% yield. The circa 100,000-square-foot retail park is 100% let to tenants including Aldi, Wren, Furniture Village and Currys.
XProp and Knight Frank advised NFU Mutual; Savills advised the vendor BlackRock.
Separately, Columbia Threadneedle, advised by ESH, is understood to have completed its acquisition of Parkgate Shopping Park in Rotherham with market sources suggesting a price of around £55 million.
Capreon has sold the park to Columbia Threadneedle,which has reportedly raised funds on behalf of a client for a major investment drive into the sector. CoStar News first tipped the sale in April.
Parkgate is one of the top five largest retail parks in the UK, comprising approximately 406,000 square feet of retail warehouse and restaurant space on a 40.6-acre site with 2,250 free parking spaces. Anchor tenants include Primark, Currys, Next, Poundland, Wren and Matalan with an adjacent Morrisons superstore, alongside a further 40 retail and restaurant units that range in size from 1,500 to 45,000 square feet.
Parkgate attracts more than 8 million visitors per annum and will see the opening of a new 45,000-square-foot owner occupied Frasers store in first quarter 2024 and the completion of the spine road extension linking it with the A6123 to the east in May 2024.
Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate said it will re-energise Parkgate, enhance the tenant mix and "maximise its potential to become a best-in-class UK retail destination".
A spokesperson for Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate, said in a statement: “We are delighted to add Parkgate to our extensive retail warehouse portfolio that now totals some 10 million square feet. By utilising our existing strong retailer relationships, we see real opportunity to maximise Parkgate’s potential both for retail and restaurant operators and customers, taking its place as a leading shopping and leisure destination befitting of its scale and regional dominance.”
ESH acted for the purchaser and Staunton Whiteman represented the vendor.
The park is one of three sold by Capreon. British Land continued its investment drive into retail parks last April, buying the adjoining Westwood and Westwood Gateway Retail Parks, Thanet, from Capreon, advised by CBRE, for around £55 million or an 8% yield.
Grant Lonsdale, director of market analytics, CoStar, says retail warehouse investment volumes are estimated to have hit around £1.8 billion in 2023, down about a third from a year earlier but broadly in line with the 10-year average.
"Investors are likely to continue to target the subsector in the year ahead, thanks to comparatively high occupancy rates and rental growth prospects, particularly in the case of food and discount-oriented schemes.