Press Release
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Press Release 29th May 2014 For immediate release £75 million Investment in Four HUT Shopping Park Extensions Almost 300,000 sq ft of development works underway Hercules Unit Trust (HUT), the specialist retail park fund advised by British Land and managed by Schroders, is pleased to announce that construction work has started on four extensions to existing schemes across its portfolio. Work is underway on a 112,000 sq ft retail extension at Glasgow Fort, a 71,000 sq ft extension at Deepdale Shopping Park in Preston and leisure extensions of 55,000 sq ft at Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh and 55,000 sq ft at Broughton Shopping Park in Chester. The extensions have a total cost of £75 million and will create more than a thousand new retail jobs locally, as well as temporary positions during the construction phase. The £35.5 million Glasgow Fort retail extension comprises an 80,000 sq ft anchor store which has been pre-let to M&S and a further 32,250 sq ft of retail and food and beverage space. The £14 million extension at Deepdale Shopping Park in Preston, which is 50% owned by HUT, will deliver 44,897 sq ft of additional retail space, which is 100% pre-let, and 28,658 sq ft of ancillary uses. The retailers to open at the extension are Wren Kitchens, Sofaworks, Harveys and Oak Furniture Land. The £12.5 million leisure extension at Broughton Shopping Park in Chester will include an 11- screen Cineworld IMAX cinema and five high quality family restaurants including PizzaExpress, Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito and Nando’s. Fort Kinnaird’s £13 million leisure extension in partnership with the Crown Estate, which is 50% funded by HUT, will feature a seven screen Odeon cinema alongside seven restaurants including PizzaExpress, Nando’s, Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito and TGI Friday’s and a cafe. Ben Grose, Head of Hercules Unit Trust for British Land, said: “This £75 million investment will enable HUT to further broaden the retail and leisure mix and incorporate more food and beverage operators at these four key assets. This will enable us to continue to improve the shopper experience and enhance dwell times.” The extension at Preston is scheduled for completion this year with Glasgow Fort, Edinburgh and Chester in spring 2015. Fort Kinnaird Shopping Park is owned by Gibraltar Limited Partnership which is 50% owned by the Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) and 50% owned by The Crown Estate. ENDS Enquiries: Investor Relations Sally Jones, British Land 020 7467 2942 Media Jackie Whitaker, British Land 020 7467 3449 Emma Hammond, FTI Consulting 020 7269 9347 Pip Wood, British Land 020 7467 2942 Gordon Simpson, Finsbury Group 020 7251 3801 Notes to Editors Hercules Unit Trust Hercules Unit Trust (HUT) is a Jersey-based closed-ended property unit trust with a fixed life which has been extended to 2020, and is subject to further extension with unit holder consent. HUT’s primary investment focus is major retail warehouse or shopping park properties with a value in excess of £20 million in the United Kingdom and, in particular, those properties that are locally preferred in their catchment area, offer a critical mass of retailing and, where possible, have the benefit of Open A1 planning consent. HUT is the UK’s largest specialist retail warehouse property unit trust with a portfolio of £1.5 billion. As at 31 December 2013, the Trust owned and managed 19 retail and shopping parks, including Glasgow Fort Shopping Park in Glasgow and 50% of Fort Kinnaird Shopping Park in Edinburgh, providing around 4.5 million sq ft of retail park space. Key tenants include Next, Boots, Arcadia, Marks & Spencer, Walmart, Kingfisher Group, Dixons, Home Retail Group and New Look. British Land is HUT’s property adviser and Schroder Property Managers (Jersey) Ltd is the Fund Manager. Schroder Property Schroders has managed property funds since 1971 and currently has £11.0 (€13.4/US$18.4) billion of gross property assets under management (at 31 March 2014). All of the property funds referred to are unauthorised collective investment schemes as defined in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. Promotion of these funds is restricted and access to full information about these funds is only available to those exempt from the restriction. For further information about Schroders’ property business visit www.schroderproperty.com About British Land We are one of Europe’s largest publicly listed real estate companies. We own, manage, develop and finance a portfolio of high quality commercial property, focused on retail locations around the UK and London Offices & Residential. We have total assets in the UK, owned or managed of £17.8 billion (British Land share of which is £12.0 billion), as valued at 31 March 2014. Our properties are home to over 1,000 different organisations and receive over 300 million visits each year. Our objective is to deliver long-term and sustainable total returns to our shareholders and we do this by focusing on Places People Prefer. People have a choice where they work, shop and live and we aim to create outstanding places which make a positive difference to people’s everyday lives. Our customer orientation enables us to develop a deep understanding of the people who use our places. We employ a lean team of experts, who have the skills to translate this understanding into creating the right places, and we have an efficient capital structure which is able to effectively finance these places. UK Retail assets account for 53% of our portfolio. As the UK’s largest listed owner and manager of retail space, our portfolio is well matched to the different ways people shop today, from major regional shopping centres to single occupier locations. We are focused on being the destination of choice for retailers and their customers by being the best provider of spaces and services. Comprising around 25 million sq ft of retail space across 66 retail parks, 85 superstores, 15 shopping centres, 12 department stores and 77 leisure assets, the retail portfolio is modern, flexible and adaptable to a wide range of formats. Our Office and Residential portfolio, which accounts for 47% of our portfolio is focused on London, We have an attractive mix of high-quality buildings in well-managed environments and a pipeline of development projects which will add significantly to our portfolio. Increasingly, our offices are in mixed-use environments which include retail and residential elements. Our 7.3 million sq ft of high quality office space includes Regent’s Place and Paddington Central in the West End and Broadgate, the premier City office campus (50% share). Our size and substance demands a responsible approach to business. We believe leadership on issues such as sustainability helps drive our performance and is core to the delivery of our overall objective of driving shareholder value and creating Places People Prefer. Further details can be found on the British Land website at www.britishland.com .