Standard Life commits EUR 191m to Pooled Property Fund

Standard Life Investments' Pooled Property Fund has committed a total of £150 mln (EUR 191 mln) to acquisitions, sales and refurbishment projects across the fund's portfolio of retail, office and industrial properties in the first half of this year.

The fund invested £47.25m to acquire 60 Gresham Street, a 5,481 m² grade A office building in the City of London, which is fully let to nine occupiers including Alliance Trust, Industry Funds Management and Anthologie.

The Standard Life fund also completed the £7 mln sale of a parade of shops at Salters Row in Pontefract, Yorkshire. In May, the fund acquired the freehold interest in a 18,580 m² distribution unit on the Suttons Business Park in Reading, which is let to Brake Bros Ltd on a new 25-year lease.

The Fund recently completed a transaction to acquire 100% ownership of the County Mall Shopping Centre in Crawley, West Sussex, where earlier in the year it secured a letting to clothes retailer Primark on a new 25-year lease. The Pooled Property Fund has also recently commenced two substantial redevelopment projects in London's supply constrained West End. In June, work started on the refurbishment of 23 King Street to extend the existing building and create 4,111 m² of prime offices in St James’s. This project is due to be completed in June 2013. A further redevelopment project has just started at 5 Welbeck Street. which will deliver 2.536 m² of Grade A office space in December this year.