Dutch pension asset manager APG is taking a 75% stake in a Scottish retail property redevelopment by TH Real Estate.

TH Real Estate, which holds the 1.7m sqft asset in its UK Shopping Centre Fund, will redevelop and expand the Edinburgh St James centre.

It said it would start work on the £850m (€944.5m) redevelopment with immediate effect.

Completion – originally scheduled for mid-2018 – is now due in 2021.

TH Real Estate said it would continue to asset manage the project, expected to be worth more than £1bn once completed.

APG already holds stakes in London’s Westfield Stratford City retail scheme and the CAP3000 mall in Nice.

Robert-Jan Foortse, head of European property investments at APG, said the project, anchored by department store John Lewis, fit well in its portfolio with the two assets.

“Edinburgh St James also fits in seamlessly with our strategy to increase our focus on ‘develop to core’ projects,” he said.

“In TH Real Estate, we have a long-time trusted partner, and we look forward to working with them in the completion of the project and its management, once it has been completed.”

Foortse said the addition of a 214-room W hotel would help attract “even more tourists” to the city.

Myles White, director of retail at TH Real Estate, said: “We are delighted to be strengthening our existing relationship with APG, with whom we have built up a strong and successful relationship over the past eight years, to partner on this exceptional development.”

TH Real Estate said 150 private apartments would also form part of the redevelopment on the site of the 1960s mall.

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