Westchester Buys Three Retail Parks And Looks For More

LONDON-Westchester Property Holdings, the specialist out-of-town retail fund set up earlier this year by property investor Grantchester and ex-retailer Tom Hunter, has agreed a £70 million ($100 million) revolving finance package with Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland to finance further acquisitions. It has already bought three retail parks for £40 million ($57 million).

Two of the acquisitions are on the Isle of Thanet in Kent and the third in the city of Durham. The Westwood and East Kent retail parks in Thanet were purchased for £30.5 million ($44 million). Between them they provide 161,000 sf in 11 units, and tenants include Matalan, Homebase, Powerhouse, Harveys, Carpetright, Currys and Comet. A 16,000-sf extension to the Matalan store will be completed next month and Westchester has plans to refurbish and extend the scheme further.

The Mercia retail park in Durham was purchased for £9.4 million ($13.5 million). The five units totaling 58,000 sf are let to MFI, Allied Carpets, Powerhouse and Northern Electric. Westchester plans to refurbish and extend the scheme and move a number of the tenants to make better use of the open A1 planning consent.