Blue Marble Asset Management (Blue Marble) has acquired a 24,000 sq ft Grade A headquarters office building, next to East Midlands Airport, let to international serviced office provider Regus.
Acting on behalf of an in-house private client, Edward Jones, Investment Director at Birmingham-based real estate asset management company Blue Marble, acquired the long leasehold of Unit 1B Pegasus Business Park, Castle Donington, DE74 2TZ. The property was being marketed for £3.38m. Savills represented the vendor.
Built in 2002, Unit 1B Pegasus Business Park is 24,371 sq ft Grade A office building, let to Regus East Midlands Airport for serviced office accommodation on a 25 year lease, expiring in June 2026.
Mr Jones says: “Achieving such a high yield for a Grade A HQ office building, with nine years unexpired, is exceptionally hard to achieve in the present market. We are very comfortable that if the building did become vacant then it would swiftly re-let, either as a whole or part, off a higher rent, and achieve a significant upwards shift in capital value.
“The Regus Centre is extremely well managed and the building recently benefited from a comprehensive refurbishment. In August (2017) Regus announced that they have bought rival operator Basepoint Business Centres in a deal thought to be worth £100m – increasing the Regus UK portfolio to more than 340 centres. This demonstrates the ambition that Regus have, which in turn will have a positive impact on value for our client’s property.”
Pegasus Business Park is a purpose built business park adjacent to East Midlands Airport and Junction 23A of the M1 Motorway. In addition to Regus, office occupiers include PWC, Nikon, PKF Cooper-Parry, and National Grid.
Mr Jones continues: “This is yet another market-beating deal for Blue Marble where we have identified a high yielding investment opportunity and acquired it for our private investor client, for whom we will now implement a very clear business plan to maximise its future performance.”
This purchase follows Blue Marble’s acquisitions of the freehold investments in Red Kangaroo’s 38,000 sq ft Nottingham Trampoline Park, and in a 10,000 sq ft office building at Robin Hood Airport, Doncaster, both on behalf of CRT Property Investments Ltd.
Based in Birmingham’s Colmore Business District, Blue Marble Asset Management is a real estate asset management specialist which presently has more than £70 million of property assets under management. It works for a select range of clients including investment businesses, high net worth individuals, trusts and family offices. Its business is based on taking a holistic and strategic view of each of its property investments.
