Helical Bar announced on Wednesday that its joint venture with Abbeygate Developments has completed the forward funding of the Leisure Plaza retail and leisure scheme in Milton Keynes, UK.
Helical Bar announced on Wednesday that its joint venture with Abbeygate Developments has completed the forward funding of the Leisure Plaza retail and leisure scheme in Milton Keynes, UK.
Aviva Investors’ Lime Property Fund is investing around £40 mln (€46 mln) in the project, reflecting a headline yield of 4.25%.
Under terms of the transaction, the partnership will redevelop the entire Leisure Plaza scheme to provide an 80,000 sq ft (8,600 m2) supermarket, which has been pre-let to Morrisons on a long lease.
The scheme also includes a refurbished ice rink facility and a site with planning consent for two retail warehouse units totalling 33,000 sq ft. The supermarket is due to be completed in August 2014.
In addition, Helical has sold its long leasehold interest in the Asda supermarket at its Clydebank shopping centre to Aviva Investors for £12.15 mln, reflecting an initial yield of 5.15%.
Jack Pitman, investment director at Helical Bar, said: ‘Both these transactions are a clear illustration of our strategy of creating institutional-grade product through asset management and then releasing our equity so that we can recycle the proceeds into new opportunities.’
In both transactions Wilkinson Williams advised Helical Bar and Abbeygate Developments and Strutt and Parker advised Aviva Investors.
Helical Bar and Aviva Investors have already been working together. In West London the companies recently received planning permission for their Brickfields development, a 1.55 million sq ft (14,000 m2) residential-led, mixed-use scheme at White City.
