Deal to forward fund £60m Sydenham retail park collapses

[leenewham]

Anyone know anything about this?:

A deal by the Strathclyde Pension Fund to forward fund the development of a £60m retail and industrial park in Sydenham, South London, has collapsed.

The pension fund was in talks with developer Kier Property to invest in the 200,000 sq ft scheme at the former Bell Green gas, but the talks have now ended after the pair were said to have run out of time to complete the deal ahead of a deadline to start on site to ensure stores could be delivered to retailers on time.

The termination of the latest deal comes after Metric Property pulled out of a similar deal in February.

Strathclyde was in talks to forward fund the scheme in a deal reflecting a yield of around 6.2%. Kier will now fund the development of the retail element, which is the first phase, and the developer is expected to look for a partner early next year as this nears completion.

The retail park is fully pre-let to tenants including Next, B&Q, Pets @ Home and Toys R Us.

National Grid owns the 13.8 acre site. The scheme will comprise a 125,000 sq ft retail park and a further 75,000 sq ft of warehouse and trade space. Ground works have now started and the retail scheme is due to complete in spring 2013. The second phase of the development has planning consent and will be called Trade City Sydenham.

Andrew White, divisional director for Kier Property, said: “This is an important project as it’s the only 100% pre-let retail scheme of this scale starting on site in the south-east this summer and we’re confident that it will play a major part in regenerating Sydenham.”

DTZ Investment Management and Savills advise Strathclyde; DTZ and Lambert Smith Hampton advise Kier.




http://www.propertyweek.com/news/news-b ... ng+news%29

[Tim Lund]

Hard to say.

DTZ Investment Management and Savills advise Strathclyde; DTZ and Lambert Smith Hampton advise Kier.

Odd that one company was advising both sides in the transaction!

The 'yield of around 6.2%' compares with about 1.5% of a ten year government bond, so I would have thought would be attractive (many years ago I was a bond fund manager ...)

This is very much like the sort of infrastructure investment of pension fund assets that the government wants to get going, now that banks are no longer up to much 'financial intermediation'.

[Eagle]

Rod
Tend to agree that what Sydenham does not want is a retail park. ( not sure where the green of park comes in anyway )
These places attract people with CARS. Sydenham not built for cars.

[dickp]

You do realise that those of us with cars currently just drive to Croydon, Sutton or St Mary's Cray for our Pets at home / B&Q fix?

And yes, we DO also use local stores - but the biggies are best for bulk purchases.

Opposing retail parks doesn't mean we won't go to them. We'll just drive ten miles instead of two.

What's worse?

[Eagle]

dickp
You mention two examples

Pets at Home . Supports White's , great store
B and Q . Two Homebases close by.

[dickp]

I use Whites at least once a week.

I use Homebase in Penge to.

I walk to both.

That doesn't stop me going further afield. Because I can.

I have a new patio. The slabs came from Eynesford. The sand came from Catford Wicks. A pot plant came from Penge. The container came from Uxbridge, where I happened to be staying last weekend.

I'm not usual. By a long stretch of the imagination. I make no appologies for using large chain stores. I like them.

[leenewham]

I'm with Dickp on this.

We like the big stores, you get choice. Our paint is an eco brand that uses UV light to break down smells (sourced online direct from the manufacturer), My fencing came from Yorkshire (via ebay from a small family run firm), plants from the garden centre in Forest Hill, tools from Focus DIY (from a photoshoot we had after we designed them all and they didn't want them back), wood from Selco (Wickes catford are a miserable bunch aren't they?)…

…and weeds from lack of gardening.

[Eagle]

Lee
You seem to be coping very well without a retail park at Bell Green.

Anyway looks like will not be built at present but maybe in a few years. However seem to recall they have been going to build since the sava centre constructed , seem to recall about 1990.

[dickp]

Exactly. The high street lives or dies by being better / different / more enjoyable / more convenient than the Bell Green-style retail parks and - of course - the internet.

All can coexist - but only if they're good enough.

[Rachael]

Personally, I think Bell Green is far enough from the high street to be little threat. It will attract car drivers from Catford, Lewisham, and possibly Bromley, all people who aren't using pur high street anyway. It won't change my use of the high street.

Haven't they already started work? If it is the sit behind the gasometers, there has been activity on there for the past few weeks.


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[Eagle]

Well said. I agree people should be free to shop where they like but worry about the demise of our High Street's .

[mikej]

I also agree with Lee. We have a couple of Homebases in the area (Penge, Downham) and having a B&Q will save lots of us having to drive over to the Purley Way/A23 so that is a bonus. All these stores have their strengths and weaknesses, so this is good. It also won't take anything away from Sydenham High St.
Again. the nearest (?) Toys R Us is on the A23 near Croydon - lots of car journeys reduced by this scheme.

[Annie.]

If the high street is going to suffer because of Bell Green perhaps the shops should sell stuff we all want, I wanted to buy trainers today,thought of going to Bromley cost on bus £2.70 return, pop to penge either walk ( it was raining and i felt lazy) or pay £2.70, or pop down the highstreet! Yeay! Or at least it would be --- if we had a shoe shop! Do the shop owners ever do research to see what we want? All i have ever seen on here is the french pastries shop and other food shops.

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[marymck]

Hear hear Annie. A well timed comment from my point of view. I've a 15 year lad visiting who wants to buy some clothes this afternoon & I can't think of anywhere local that he'd approve of.

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[marymck]

Not at all rod. He's not that sort of boy. he's actually far more conscious of third world exploitation than I am. And I'm not that sort of woman and there are no clothes shops for me in our high street either.

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[Annie.]

Actually Rod I dont think you are in the minority of Sydenham residents who would " like " shops that they would actually use. I dont venture down the high street very often,and when I do, I wish I hadn't bothered,thats why I think more research should be done on who wants what and why.
As for a Sushi bar,never tried the stuff and probably never will.
All people seem to ask for on here is more food outlets? Why? There are penty of places to eat already, we need variety in our shops to encourage people to bother to walk down the street, until that happens the highstreet will remain dead to people like me.

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[Annie.]

Oooooh haha, I like the way you think!
Either a lot of men have a day off midweek or they are spending my hard earned in the bookies. You are right Rod,but why should they bring us down?

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[marymck]

I was very disappointed with the cake shop aka slatters recently. I needed to buy a cake for a Big birthday and thought how lucky I was to live near such a great shop and that I'd be spoilt for choice. No joy. Seems you can only get a birthday cake there if you've pre-ordered. My options were the coop or drive to sainsburys or bake.

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[Annie.]

If you dont want a hair cut, religious stuff, 99p goods, to bet,to eat, to feel intimidated by security staff, ie superdrugs,,sainsburys,then dont shop in sydenham unfortunately these shops overide the good shops.

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[marymck]

I must say though that the haircuts are great. When I first moved back to sydenham I was too nervous to try the high street. I tried nicky clarkes, john frieda - all with directors. None of them were a patch on Scott at mastercutters, who's a fraction of the price.

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