British Land sells Beehive Centre
British Land announced today that it has sold the Beehive Centre for £109.2m to Orchard Street Investment Management. The 238,000 sq ft part open consented retail property in Cambridge comprises 16 units with an Asda food store as the anchor store. The retail park, which British Land bought in 1998, is fully let at an average rent of £25 per sq ft, with an average lease length of 14 years.
Charles Maudsley, head of retail for British Land, said the sale demonstrated the strength of demand from institutional investors for quality retail parks. Chris Bartram, chairman at Orchard Street, noted that opportunities to buy major, well-let retail assets were rare.
The Telegraph reports today that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund could announce as soon as this week that it has bought the 50% of the Meadowhall shopping centre owned by London & Stamford for around £750m. Media reports last month said that British Land had decided against selling part of its half of the property because of the centre’s strong performance over the past year.
