Rockspring Property Investment Managers LLP, on behalf of the Cheshire Pension Fund, has acquired Maybrook Retail Park in Canterbury for £17.74 million

Rockspring Property Investment Managers LLP, on behalf of the Cheshire Pension Fund, has acquired Maybrook Retail Park in Canterbury for £17.74 million, reflecting a net initial yield of 6.24% NIY. Located close to the centre of the historic cathedral city of Canterbury, the park was developed in 2007 and comprises 62,843 sq ft of retail accommodation in five terraced units and a stand alone retail pod. The park is let Marks and Spencer Simply Food, Halfords, Maplin, Dave Whelan Sports and KFC with a weighted average unexpired lease term of 17.8 years. Edgerley Simpson Howe advised Rockspring and Fletcher King advised the vendor, Downham Properties Limited. Phil Sturdy, European Director, said “the acquisition increases the Fund’s exposure to long term income with some fixed uplifts in an affluent South-east city with limited vacancy.” (Dec 2010)

Edgerley Simpson Howe LLP has been awarded the title of Top Managing Agent 2010 by Standard Life Investments

Edgerley Simpson Howe LLP has been awarded the title of Top Managing Agent 2010 by Standard Life Investments. Following a rigourous review process ESH came out top ahead of the Fund Managers other 6 agents. ESH manage the fund’s retail warehouse parks portfolio which currently include the flagship schemes of Castlepoint in Bournemouth, Gallions Reach in Beckton and The Water Gardens in Harlow. Mike Hannigan, Investment Director for Standard Life says: We are delighted to announce Edgerley Simpson Howe as our “Top Performing Managing Agent for 2010″. As a result of our retendering last year we selected the six best managing agents across the country. Expectations are increasing and the purpose of our annual performance assessment is to ensure continued improvement in quality of service to our tenants and investors.” Simon Marshall, Partner in Charge of Management at ESH says: Standard Life continues to set very high standards of their managing agents. At ESH the management team has worked tirelessly for 10 years to maintain these standards and we are proud to be regarded as market leaders in our field.

ESH held their annual Spoof Challenge last night and where better to escape the grim autumnal weather than downstairs at Mulligans.

ESH held their annual Spoof Challenge last night and where better to escape the grim autumnal weather than downstairs at Mulligans.  A gathering of some 60 or so retail warehouse specialists sought shelter from the wind and the rain for the annual quest to find the market’s biggest Spoofer.  Last years’ champion Mark Powell dealt easily with ESH’s rookie spoofer Dan Howie but then failed to get any further.  As the Guinness flowed and the competition progressed some of the spoofers seemed to forget the basics and played into their opponents hands.

After several hours, and even more pints, it was time for the finals.  In the plate David Hobden beat Mark Phelps in a match that was a lot closer than the 3-0 scoreline would suggest.  Then all eyes turned to the main final between Will Robertson, sporting a fine moustache and Paul Morris, recent winner of the world spoofing championships.  In a tightly fought contest Will thought he had victory but celebrated too early and under the ‘no gloating’ rule he was penalized a point so it came down to sudden death – and a victory for Paul Morris of Fletcher King.

After the presentations more Guinness flowed and there will be some sore heads in the West End on Friday morning. (Nov 2010)

Adam Patrick, Jamie Naughton and Jonathan Brown were in attendance at this month’s annual BCSC Event in central Manchester.

The event was extremely well attended by hundreds of retail professionals from both the shopping centre, in-town and Out of Town Retail markets.  The ESH team held a series of meetings with retailers and landlords alike to discuss clients’ opportunities on schemes as well as glean the latest retailer trends and requirements.  The mood was very positive with several fresh town requirements identified and key opportunities discussed in detail given the general air of optimism and despite the horrendous downpours throughout the event.

Retailers were out in force and seemingly keen to progress deals on several ESH-managed schemes, which bodes well going into the final part of 2010 as well as looking ahead into the New Year.

The marked increase in activity experienced earlier this year has begun to plateau in many cases, but the position is far more positive than this time last year.

There is growing caution from several retailers who, despite encouraging store acquisition targets and reasonably buoyant trading, are still choosing not to compete with rival offers or to pay premium rents because of the government’s austerity measures, a perceived squeeze on disposable incomes, limited availability of credit and job security.

Yet there are reasons to be optimistic.

On the better retail parks and stronger locations there has been a reduction in landlords’ incentives. This had led to improved net effective rents.

Among the new entrants to the retail warehouse market are Wren Kitchens. It has opened 19 stores and HomeSense, the TK Maxx homewares fascia, has committed itself to 25 stores and wants 10 to 15 more over the next 12 months. It has 75 target locations.

The established contenders that want to expand include John Lewis, Next Home and Liverpool-based Home Bargains, which has opened between 20 and 30 stores this year – no mean feat, because it sells branded food items and needs a planning consent that allows it to sell 30% food – and now wants to expand into the south of England Two other value retailers, Dunelm and the Range, are also acquiring stores. Dunelm is expanding by between 10 and 15 stores a year and the Range is trying to open in larger UK catchments and has six deals in lawyers’ hands at present.

Go Outdoors has opened six stores in the last year, to give it a chain of 23 camping and outdoor shops.

It hopes to open another six in the next 12 months.

The electrical sector is active, too, as traditional brands such as Currys, PC World and Comet combat the threat of Best Buy.

Acquisitions by these and other retailers mean that voids have reduced on better schemes in the last six months. Vacant space on weaker locations are likely to remain available for some time and may even revert to alternative higher-value use.

We are seeing the first signs of the development pipeline returning, because of improved yield profile over the past year and more stable retailer demand.

Nick Howe, Property Week  (October 2010)

ESH have been appointed by Nuffield Health and Wellbeing as their Property Management consultants.

ESH have been appointed by Nuffield Health and Wellbeing as their Property Management consultants. The company now advises on all aspects of property management affecting their 65 Health clubs together with their screening units and clinics. We receive and audit on the clients behalf all of their rent and service charge demands from their landlords and provide their property management database. The instruction commenced 1st October 2010.