The group investment company of AshbyCapital, the real estate investment advisory company, has purchased Morfa Retail Park in Swansea from The Crown Estate for £83.5m.
The 256,000 sq ft property is fully let to retail tenants including Morrisons, Currys PC World, B&Q, TK Maxx, Argos and Sports Direct. Its restaurant tenants include KFC, Pizza Hut, Frankie & Benny’s, Harvester and Starbucks. The scheme also includes 1,042 car parking spaces.
Morfa Retail Park is located 1.5 miles to the north of Swansea city centre and directly adjacent to the Liberty Stadium, which is the home ground for Swansea City Football Club and the Ospreys regional rugby team, as well as a major venue for conferences and events. More than 314,000 people live within a 20-minute drive of the property.
Quadrant Estates, the specialist retail park manager, has been as asset manager.
The Crown Estate has announced that it has also sold Bath Road Retail Park in Slough to Royal London for £94m. Royal London purchased The Crown Estate’s Apsley Mills retail park in Hemel Hempstead last year.
“Our focus is on identifying, acquiring and adding value to office, retail and residential properties in prime locations. As Swansea’s premier shopping park and the dominant retail centre in the South West of the country, Morfa Retail Park is an excellent addition to our client’s portfolio and we are very pleased to have worked with The Crown Estate to conclude this purchase in a very short timescale. This acquisition offers stable core income at an attractive yield with the prospect for further growth through asset management, and we look forward to working with the expert team at Quadrant to realise its potential.
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Christopher Daniel, Founding Partner at Quadrant Estates, said: “We look forward to to maximising the value of this well-located and popular retail park.”
Hannah Milne, Head of The Crown Estate’s regional portfolio said: “Both schemes have been strong investments, helping us to build critical mass in the sector and providing strong returns for the portfolio. As we continue to focus on larger, more dominant schemes, now is the right time to sell and take advantage of strong capital markets, following successful delivery our asset management strategies for these parks.”
CWM represented AshbyCapital and Quadrant Estates; Wilkinson Williams represented The Crown Estate.