Patron Capital — the pan-European property investor — has continued its UK acquisitions campaign by scooping up properties in Reading and Leeds for more than £100m.
Arlington Business Park in the Theale district of Reading accounted for three-quarters of that amount, Patron confirmed in a statement, with The Mint, a Grade A office building in central Leeds, topping off the deal.
“We continue to deploy significant capital in the UK, having acquired around £1bn of assets over the last two and a half years,” commented Patron Capital managing director, Keith Breslauer. “The commercial property sector remains a key focus where we will aim to invest over £500m over the next two years.
“The acquisition of Arlington Business Park and The Mint reflects our continued appetite for quality office assets in regional locations with strong underlying demand fundamentals and opportunities to create value,” he added.
Since it was established in 1999, Patron has invested in 56 assets totalling more than 65-million square feet of space located in 13 countries. Its key investment fund members — which include a number of sovereign wealth funds, the endowment funds of various universities, major institutions, private foundations and high net worth individuals — are primarily based in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Patron’s two latest purchases were undertaken through a joint partnership with APAM, an asset manager the investor has teamed up with on previous UK deals known to have involved more half-a-million square feet of space since the start of 2014.
The 40-acre Arlington Business Park, located at Junction 12 of the M4 motorway, is home to a number of big brands such as Pepsico, Vodafone, KPMG, Wolseley, Wrigleys, Acision and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Over the past two decades it has matured into a thriving business campus with 16 occupiers leasing 750,000sq ft of premium office space and employing a workforce of around 3,500 people.
The Mint is described by Patron as a 120,000sq ft, Grade A office building close to Leeds railway station, which it acquired from local developer Deltalord. Retailer Asda agreed to take 38,000sq ft at the Holbeck Urban Village building in 2011, while the Dart Group signed up to occupy 71,000sq ft of space over several floors in 2013.
