The acquisition is the seventh for Invesco’s European Value-Add Fund II, a discretionary vehicle with €1.4 billion of purchase capacity. The pan-European Fund invests across property sectors (logistics, residential, office, retail and hotels) with an emphasis on assets poised to benefit from post-COVID structural changes and recovery.
The Fort is a prominent, well located retail warehouse park let to tenants including Primark, Next, Sports Direct, Superdrug, Boots, JD Sports and Wilko. Positioned on a 29-acre site, it is the dominant retail park in Birmingham and provides over 27,870 sq m of retail space.
Miles Skinner, Director – UK Transactions at Invesco Real Estate, said: “The UK retail warehouse park market has remained resilient despite the challenges of the last 18 months and we are delighted to partner with George Capital to acquire The Fort, which offers excellent repositioning opportunities in conjunction with very strong underlying real estate fundamentals. The asset fits with our strategy to seek out well-located opportunities with value creation prospects, which will allow us to introduce diversification of occupier in a changing retail world and to implement enhanced ESG initiatives in order to drive performance for our investors.”
Ben Young, Founder of George Capital, said: “George Capital are very pleased to partner Invesco Real Estate on the purchase of The Fort. As the wider retail market has evolved we identified, through detailed analysis, the relative strength and potential of the retail warehouse park sub-sector early on in its recovery. We are delighted to have secured The Fort, a 29-acre site located strategically off Junction 5 of the M6. There are a number of opportunities for us to add value through active asset management of the existing retail units and to explore alternative uses, particularly in fulfilment and logistics, for part of the site.”
Cortex, Curson Sowerby and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson advised Invesco Real Estate and George Capital on the acquisition with Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Laurus Property Partners advising on the financing; Savills and CMS were mandated on the sale.
