Rockspring buys UK spec development

Rockspring Property Investment Managers has acquired a speculative office development in the UK from Hammerson on behalf of a pension fund client.

The investment in The Causeway, Staines, is the second funding of an Exton Estates scheme by Rockspring, following the 10,000 m² Velocity scheme in Brooklands, Weybridge.

The joint venture plans to implement an extensive redevelopment programme to create two new, Grade A headquarter office buildings, totalling almost 60,000 sq ft. With an estimated development cost of £17 mln (EUR 20 mln), construction is due to start in spring 2012 with the aim of releasing the offices to the market a year later.

The new development will be called Flow.

The purchase follows a number of recent development acquisitions by clients of Rockspring, including 63 St Mary's Axe, a 70,000 sq ft office building in the City of London, and Centurion House, a speculative 80,000 sq ft office development, also in the City, where planning consent was secured earlier this year.

Also this week the UK investment manager teamed up with the Mansion Group to acquire the Leodis student residences in Leeds from the Evans Group, on behalf of a pension fund client.

Leodis Student Residences is located in central Leeds and houses 717 en-suite bedrooms arranged in cluster flats and leased to the University of Leeds. This is the third acquisition of student accommodation undertaken for clients by Rockspring, and the second with the Mansion Group following its acquisition of 123 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh for £14.2 mln in October 2010. Jones Lang LaSalle represented the Evans Group.