Invesco Real Estate (IRE), the global real estate investment manager, is pleased to announce that it has completed/exchanged contracts on two acquisitions for the Invesco Real Estate - UK III Fund*, being the BREEAM Excellent-rated 'The Paragon' in central Bristol and a retail warehouse in Harlow, northeast London for a total investment of ca. £48 million (approx. 55 million).
Toby Simon, Invesco Real Estate's Director of Fund Management, says: "The two investments fit the Fund profile well by focusing on strong real estate fundamentals. They reflect such characteristics as being high quality properties within excellent locations and benefit from financially strong tenants and long-term leases, which is reflected in the Fund's overall average lease term of ca. 25 years.
"It is our local transactions team's relationships within the marketplace that enabled us to secure what is regarded as one of Bristol's best office properties and an "off-market" retail warehouse."
The Paragon is a 75,373-ft² (approx. 7,000-m²) grade-A office property with 6,914 ft² of retail space on the ground floor and underground parking. Its BREEAM Excellent rating and modern, high quality outfitting has attracted strong tenants such as Thring Townsend, Ernst & Young, Mercer, Tesco and Friska. Bristol is the UK's sixth largest city and the south-west's regional and business capital, thus attracting many international businesses.
The Harlow acquisition is a 52,900-ft² stand-alone retail warehouse property let on a long-term lease to Wickes Building Supplies Ltd. The property's well-established location within the Princes Gate Retail Park coupled with facilities such as a garden center/builders' yard and extensive parking has made this one of the tenants top 10 stores as part of its 'Wickes Extra' format. Harlow is a growing town located ca. 27 miles northeast of central London, with excellent transport links.
IRE is due to complete this transaction on September 9, 2011.
"In our view, the beneficial long lease profiles for these properties against a backdrop of shorter lease lengths in the general marketplace, coupled with a favorable market environment and also asset management opportunities for the Bristol property, means these acquisitions represent strong investments for the Fund in terms of future capital growth," says Toby Simon.
"The acquisitions have been made for our third tactical UK fund investing German-speaking institutional investors' capital into the UK real estate markets. Our investors are pleased with the success of the investment strategy to date, which has seen us acquire high quality properties, let on long-term leases to good covenants in today's market environment."
Hartnell Taylor Cook LLP and HP4 acted on behalf of IRE in the Bristol and Harlow transactions, respectively.
*For German-speaking investors only
Source: Invesco Real Estate
