A little over a month after it paid £47.5m for an Ipswich retail park, Rockspring has spent another £36m to buy Abingdon Business Park from Standard Life Investments.
The Oxfordshire park— which includes 393,000 sq ft of office and industrial space across five buildings — is the ninth asset to be acquired by Rockspring Property Investment Managers (RPIM) and brings its UK Value 2 Fund holding to more than £300m.
London-based XLB Property is currently retained by Rockspring to manage and develop its Cambridge Research Park and will take on the same duties at the Abingdon estate, situated just off the A34 in Oxfordshire’s rapidly developing “Knowledge Corridor”. The site is 72 per cent let to around 45 tenants, including Orchid Cellmark, UK Mail and Taylor Wimpey.
“This acquisition is in line with the fund’s strategy to acquire assets that will benefit from a proactive asset management strategy in order to drive returns for the fund,” commented Rockspring partner and fund manager, Richard Bains.
“We intend to capitalise on the opportunity to modernise the asset, reduce vacancy and drive rental growth through re-gearing and extending existing leases and developing the remaining land.
“The addition of Abingdon to the UK Value 2 portfolio further broadens the fund’s exposure to the south east office market, which we believe continues to offer compelling market dynamics and rental growth potential,” added Bains.
CBRE acted for Rockspring on the £36.4m sale — which also included substantial development land — with Standard Life Investments being advised by DTZ.
At the end of March RPIM acquired Euro Retail Park in Ipswich from Helix Property Advisors in a £47.5m deal.
With tenants that include B&Q, B&M, Sports Direct, Halfords, Dreams, ScS, Wren Kitchens, Harveys, Carpetright, Pizza Hut and Burger King the 210,534 sq ft retail warehouse site is already an established shopping location just south of the town centre.
At the time of the sale Phil Sturdy, Rockspring’s European director, said: “Euro Retail Park fits perfectly with the UK Value 2 Fund’s core-plus, value-add strategy. It is a high quality, low risk retail park that will not only generate strong income returns but offers value growth potential through a pro-active asset management strategy.”
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