Savills has been appointed to sell the long leasehold interest in Festival Place Shopping Centre in Basingstoke, on behalf of receivers BDO, CoStar News can reveal.
Festival Place, which comprises 1,127,629 square feet over 20 acres, dominates the commercial core of the affluent London commuter town and is one of the UK's largest shopping centres. Key anchor tenants include Marks & Spencer, Next and H&M, with other prominent occupiers including Superdrug, Apple, Nando’s, Sports Direct, Five Guys, TK Maxx and Vue Cinema. The scheme has a weighted average unexpired lease term (WAULT) of 5.76 years, with 4.36 years to break.
Significant asset management initiatives are already advanced by Sovereign Centros with recent lettings to Superbowl and Hans Buffet in 16,750 square feet and 10,000 square feet respectively. Savills said there is also strong demand for the vacant former Debenhams space, which spans three levels and 107,014 square feet. It said there are considerations around introducing a mix of retail and leisure uses, aimed at improving dwell time, footfall and customer spend.
Mark Garmon-Jones, Director of Retail Investment at Savills, said in a statement: “We are delighted to be working with receivers and Sovereign Centros, as asset managers, to market this dominant shopping and leisure scheme in the South East. It presents significant asset management opportunities, driven by strong tenant demand and performance."
AEW Europe and TRS Texas bought Festival Place from the-then TH Real Estate for around £285 million, a 6.3% yield, in 2015.
There has been a notable increase in major shopping centres being put up for sale in the last week, with Festival Place joining formal processes for EK in East Kilbride in Scotland and Norwich's Castle Quarter in the East of England.