There has been some fantastic commercial property news in Berkshire, after real estate investment trust, British Land, announced on Wednesday morning that it is the new owner of the prime Maidenhead town centre site.
The company has purchased the 198,000 sq ft office and leisure complex for a grand total of £74m. The commercial property, Grenfell Island, located in the centre of Maidenhead, 30 miles from London, was completed in 2000 and comprises 13,000 square feet of office space, currently is let out to Hutchison 3G UK Ltd, as the U.K. headquarters of Hutchison Whampoa, a telecommunications and data services provider. Its unexpired lease term is 9.5 years. With, the other 85,000 sq ft of space consisting of a leisure complex, which includes a cinema and a health club.
British Land, see the acquisition of Grenfall Island as a fantastic coup for the company, with British Land’s head of offices Tim Roberts, saying: ‘The acquisition provides British Land with an attractive income return in an improving occupier market and fits well within our strategic priority of creating sustainable and growing property rental streams… The acquisition provides British Land with an attractive income return in an improving occupier market and fits well within our strategic priority of creating sustainable and growing property rental streams.’
The move follows a recent report from, Colliers International, which classed Maidenhead as an ‘improving’ town. The Colliers International report looked at 364 different towns and cities across the UK with the results suggesting that just three per cent or 11 locations were classed as ‘improving’, whilst a quarter of locations were deemed to be ‘failing’.
The report has pointed to a number of different factors which demonstrate Maidenhead is improving. These include the number of empty shops being below the national average and an above average number of retailers looking to be represented in the town.
