Eastgate forms the dominant retail heart of Basildon town centre enjoying an annual footfall of c.14m p.a. It comprises over 70,000 sqm of covered lettable space across over 100 shop units and three office buildings, along with one of the main car parks in the town. Tenants include a number of well-known brands such as Primark, New Look, Next, Debenhams, Topshop, H&M, River Island, and Superdry. A 16,000 sqm Asda supermarket is a further anchor tenant to the scheme. Basildon is a key commercial and administrative hub for the county of Essex. Being easily commutable to London it benefits from the vibrant economy of the UK capital and the southeast.
InfraRed has been a long-standing investor in U.K. shopping centres having managed three specialist shopping centre funds between 1998 and 2006. In 2011 it re-entered the U.K. shopping centre market after an absence of 5 years, acquiring The Galleries in Bristol. It subsequently acquired the Castle Mall in Norwich, and both St Johns and Clayton Square in Liverpool.
Chris Huxtable, Director at InfraRed, said:
“The purchase of Eastgate adds to our growing portfolio of shopping centres acquired since we re-entered this market at the beginning of 2011. With Eastgate, we have acquired a dominant town centre asset in the southeast that benefits from high footfall, affordable rents and strong retailer performance. The asset has remained resilient throughout the economic downturn, helped by its location and high quality occupiers. We plan to make further investment into the asset which will be to the benefit of Eastgate’s customers, tenants, and to Basildon as a whole.”
InfraRed has appointed the Hark Group as asset managers and Munroe K Asset Management as property managers. Cushman & Wakefield and Olswang provided real estate advisory and legal services to InfraRed respectively.
