Commercial property investment company LCP is to open its first office in Scotland after expanding its portfolio north of the border, it has announced.
The company, which is one of the UK’s largest private owners of retail, industrial and office property, is setting up a new office at 6 Harmony Row, Glasgow, from where it will manage its Scottish retail and industrial estates.
Julian Diamond, LCP asset manager, said it was a natural step to open an office in Scotland as the company had significantly increased its presence there over the past two years.
Prior to this, LCP’s London team had managed its Scottish portfolio.
“This is an exciting venture for LCP,” he said. “As our Scottish portfolio has increased significantly over the past few years to 25 holdings, with a further four investments currently under offer, we’ve decided to grow our team and it makes perfect sense to open an office from where we can continue our hands-on approach and pro-actively manage the portfolio.
“Our teams across the UK are actively looking for new sites where we can add value with excellent potential to improve yields, enabling us to achieve our investment goals. We continue to seek further commercial property investment opportunities across Scotland and look forward to growing the team accordingly.”
LCP group committed £98 million to investing in its commercial property portfolio 2016 and is aiming to invest a further £200 million this year in both retail and industrial properties.
Last year, the company invested in 41 sites across the UK, totalling 875,000 sq ft, the largest of which was the £23.34 million Blossom portfolio, comprising 216,000 sq ft spread across 14 sites.
Sites within the Scottish portfolio include Knightwood and Govan Cross Shopping Centres in Glasgow, Airdrie Retail Park in Airdie, and Forbes Court on the Middlefield Industrial Estate in Falkirk.