Real estate investment manager Meyer Bergman and US property investor Thor Equities have acquired Burlington Arcade in London's West End, for £104 mln (EUR 117 mln). The acquisition has been made through what is initially an 80/20 joint venture, but which provides Thor with an option to increase its stake in the JV to 50% by summer 2011.
Real estate investment manager Meyer Bergman and US property investor Thor Equities have acquired Burlington Arcade in London's West End, for £104 mln (EUR 117 mln). The acquisition has been made through what is initially an 80/20 joint venture, but which provides Thor with an option to increase its stake in the JV to 50% by summer 2011.
The transaction represents Thor Equities' first acquisition in the UK, and is in line with both parties' strategies to acquire well-located retail assets with the potential for asset management and other value-enhancing initiatives. The joint venture is in talks with a number of interested retailers and believes that there is an opportunity to further strengthen the Arcade's high-quality tenant mix.
Purported to be one of the world's oldest shopping malls, Burlington Arcade runs parallel to Bond Street in the West End. The 37,000 sq ft building attracts between 3 and 4 million visitors each year. Bond Street has recently been revealed as the most expensive retail location in Europe, after a strong supply/demand imbalance pushed rents in the area up 20% year-on-year compared to 2009.
Markus Meijer, chief executive and founder of Meyer Bergman, commented: 'The acquisition of the Burlington Arcade represents a unique opportunity to acquire one of London’s most iconic retail assets. It follows our two recent Greater London acquisitions of the Bentall Centre in Kingston and the Exchange Centre in Ilford, where we were able to take advantage of prevailing market conditions and the specific attributes of the two assets to target superior returns on prime UK assets.'
'Our investment focus is now shifting very much to Continental Europe, where we have identified and are pursuing a number of exciting opportunities. These include development projects, which we believe for the right scheme are an attractive proposition at this time in the cycle, as well as investments where we can add value by asset managing an existing property. Geographically, we expect these will be in both traditional western European markets, as well as further east.'