Rockspring acquires UK projects

European investment manager Rockspring has acquired Centurion House, a speculative redevelopment scheme in the City of London for over £22 mln (EUR 26 mln). The purchase is earmarked for Rockspring's UK Value Fund.

Centurion House, a 1980's office building, was bought from CBRE Investors. It is currently multi-let to seven tenants, and will be transferred vacant to Rockspring in July 2011. Rockspring will work with its development partner, Charterfield Asset Management, to comprehensively refurbish the 5,700-m² building, with the aim of releasing the building to the occupational market in early 2013.

Separately, Rockspring has announced that it has exchanged contracts to acquire a speculative office development project in Weybridge, Surrey for over £4 mln. The Arrows site, which was purchased from Mercedes Benz, currently has existing planning consent for a single 12,000 m² office building.

Rockspring, together with its development partner Exton Estates, will submit a revised planning application for the site for two office buildings better suited to the occupational demand within the region. Once planning has been received, the scheme will be speculatively built out for delivery at the end of 2012.

Rockspring acquired its first development project for its UK Value Fund, 65 Southwark Street, in February last year. Construction is expected to start on site later this month for delivery in Q2 2012.

Richard Bains, Rockspring UK Value Fund Manager, said: 'The acquisition of two further development projects on behalf of our UK Value Fund reflects our strategy of taking on occupational risk in locations where the fundamentals of supply and demand support speculative development. Working closely with our experienced development partners, Charterfield and Exton Estates, we believe we can deliver two high quality office schemes at a time and in markets where we expect to see limited comparable supply.'

Hanlon Bennett acted for Rockspring on Centurion House, with King Sturge advising the vendor. Strutt and Parker and DWD2 advised Rockspring on the Weybridge purchase and Colliers CRE acted for the vendor.