A year after it was launched to target the leisure property market Otium Real Estate (ORE) has completed its first three transactions from its £200m Otium Leisure Ventures fund.
Led by founder and chief executive Ashley Blake, the property investment company has paid £4m for Nuffield Health and Fitness in Hednesford, Cannock; £12m for the 139,989 sq ft Westgate Leisure Park in Wakefield and, most recently, £14m for Newport Retail and Leisure Park.
Both the Westgate and Newport sites are home to a variety of popular leisure brands such as Cineworld, Nandos, McDonalds, Harvester, Frankie & Bennys, Pizza Hut and Mecca.
Launched last December, ORE’s Leisure Ventures fund is also close to signing several further deals while it actively seeks out potential purchases.
“We are delighted to have successfully acquired these three assets within seven months of our fund launch and achieved the creation of our first fund,” commented Blake.
“The leisure market is in great shape, with acquisition opportunities for those with specialist sector knowledge,” he added. “Strong occupational demand and increasing consumer confidence are boosting leisure spending, making it an outperforming sector for property investment.”
Since it was founded last summer —backed by a consortium of international institutional investors — ORE has targeted leisure parks with a mix of tenants, parades of city-centre restaurants, town centre multi-led leisure blocks, and single assets and portfolios of properties such as hotels, cinemas and gyms.
“Otium is designed to seek capital value appreciation and profits from active management whilst paying out a dividend,” explained its founder. “The strong net operating income produced by leisure compared to other property sectors will help drive dividend payments.”
Blake was previously the head of retail portfolio management at Land Securities where he led the real estate investment trust drive into leisure, including the acquisition of the X-Leisure business. He recruited the former X-Leisure finance director, Pierre Hardy, soon after ORE’s launch to take over similar duties.
DTZ represented Otium on the Cannock and Newport transactions, with Knight Frank advising on the Wakefield deal.
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