Fosse Park in Leicester, one of the biggest out-of-town retail parks in the UK, was bought last week for £360m by a group of private Northern Irish investors. BTW Shiells, a Belfast-based firm of commercial property consultants, acted on behalf of the buyers.
The sale of the 416,500-sq-ft complex is the biggest single retail property acquisition in Britain in seven years. Fosse Park was bought last January by London-based Reit Asset Management for £308m.
Another Northern Irish property investor, John McCann, is expected to complete the £67.5m purchase of a new shopping centre in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, later this week. The Ropewalk centre, which was opened at the start of September, has about 30 stores.
BTW Shiells also acted for the Northern Irish property tycoon Michael Herbert — the man behind Europe’s biggest KFC restaurant franchise operation — and his firm, Donegall Place Investments, in the £169m acquisition earlier this month of the St James Centre, a mixed-use complex in central Edinburgh. The development houses a 147-bedroom hotel, offices, about 50 retail units and three car parks.
The 33-year-old centre, which has long been labelled an eyesore by local council officials, is expected to receive an estimated £150m facelift from Donegall Place Investments. It paid £12m more than the asking price after facing strong competition for the centre.
Advertisement
Herbert owns about 40 KFC franchises in Ireland and eight in Scotland. Donegall Place Investments also shelled out £62m for the Crossgates shopping centre in Leeds last year. It made a £12m profit on the sale of the Green Lanes shopping centre in Devon, which was offloaded for £55m.