Following Lunson Mitchenall’s purchase of Festival Place, Basingstoke, on behalf of AEW Europe in December last year, the UK’s leading niche retail and leisure agent has announced it has won the leasing and lease advisory instructions for the scheme.
Headed up by Neil Hockin, the shopping centre leasing team at Lunson Mitchenall continues to go from strength to strength with instructions in the last 12 months including The Broadway, Bradford. The team counts over 50 shopping centres in its portfolio, including 15 of the UK’s top 35 shopping centres and competes against some of the biggest agents in the country.
As one of the most established in the market, the lease advisory team, led by Andrew Ainscough, has also been brought onto the scheme, to deal with on lease expiries, lease re-gears and rent reviews. Advising on institutional landlords, funds and property companies, the team works on eight of the top 15 town centre and regional shopping centres in the UK, including and Intu Eldon Square (Newcastle), and White Rose (Leeds).
Festival Place is a dominant town centre scheme with anchor tenants including Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and an impressive line-up of international brands including Next, Apple, H&M, Zara and New Look.
Russell Jewell, AEW Europe, said: “The acquisition of Festival Place falls in line with our long-term retail investment strategy into European towns and cities. The investment team at Lunson Mitchenall offered un-paralleled advice on the purchase and it was therefore clear that their leasing and lease advisory teams would be the natural fit for the scheme. We are looking forward to working with the teams to reconfigure the existing space and bolster the existing retail offer.”
Neil Hockin, Head of Shopping Centre Leasing at Lunson Mitchenall, added: “Our instruction on Festival Place is testament to our unrivalled approach in the market and our ability to bring the different teams at Lunson Mitchenall together and provide a full-circle service for our clients. Alongside the lease advisory team we will be able to long term rental growth, further strengthening the tenant mix to make the centre an even more desirable retail destination.”
John Griffin, Head of Shopping Centre Investment at Lunson Mitchenall, said: “This was the first investment transaction we have carried out for AEW Europe which, at £290 million, represented the largest shopping centre acquisitions of 2015. Having dealt with over £1 billion worth of transactions last year, we saw big growth in the investment market particularly for prime retail assets. This is something we are already seeing continue in to 2016, with investors looking to capitalise on the rental growth potential they offer.”
