InfraRed Capital Partners Limited (InfraRed) has announced the sale of its 140,000 sq ft Clayton Square Shopping Centre in Liverpool to Rockspring’s UK Value 2 Fund for c.£38.4m having completed a significant refurbishment and repositioning of the asset.
The dramatic transformation, involving the conversion of a redundant ground floor mall into retail units and the removal or conversion to other uses of unlettable first floor retail accommodation, led to Clayton Square being awarded the 2015 BCSC Gold Award for Refurbishment and/or Extension under £5m.
Within the reconfigured space, InfraRed were able to satisfy Boots’ long term property requirement for Liverpool city centre and create a new 55,000 sqft flagship store. The high quality finishes, triple height retail arcade and Clayton Square’s central location have attracted several new tenants including Morrisons, Wildwood, Peacocks and Easygym and facilitated lease re-gearings with EE and Clas Ohlson. The result is a high quality mixed use asset of institutional grade, where vacancy rates have dropped to 2% from 25% on acquisition and the WAULT has increased from 3 years to 7 years.
InfraRed was confident in its ability to able to deliver this project given its strong working relationships with the officers of Liverpool City Council and experience of the City gained through its ownership of St Johns Shopping Centre, which it acquired in early 2012.
Keith Butcher, Director, Real Estate at InfraRed, commented:
“We acquired Clayton Square in April 2013 and are delighted to have delivered our ambitious plans to transform and regenerate a tired and failing 1980s shopping centre into a vibrant mixed-use “high street” development fronting three of Liverpool’s prime retail streets and in the process to be able to satisfy Boots’ long term property requirement for the city”.
Strutt & Parker advised InfraRed on the sale, with legal advice provided by Olswang and Osborne Clarke. Throughout InfraRed’s ownership, Hark Group and Munroe K have provided asset manager and managing agent services respectively.
