Acquisition of Bournemouth retail park for the Special Situations Fund

Acquisition of Bournemouth Retail Park for £25.5m

Orchard Street Investment Management, a leading UK specialist commercial property investment manager, has acquired the Mallard Road Retail Park in Bournemouth for £25.5m for its Special Situations Fund. The vendor was Aviva. Mallard Road Retail Park was developed in 2007 and is located opposite the large Castlepoint Shopping Centre. Both properties together provide the major out of town retail facilities in the Bournemouth and Poole conurbation.

Major tenants in the Park are Homebase, BHS, Currys and PC World and Carpetright. There are eight units in total, and all are fully let. Average rents are approximately £21 per sq ft and the total rent roll is £2.65m per annum.

This acquisition is the third for the Special Situations Fund, bringing the total invested this year to £70m.

Chris Bartram, Chairman of Orchard Street, said:

“Orchard Street is delighted to add the Mallard Road Retail Park to the growing portfolio of our UK Special Situations Fund. We like the property and the sector, which we think offers very good value to investors with a 5 to 6 year investment view.At the end of last year, we took the view that the combination of yields available on good quality commercial property in the UK and the cost of medium term debt together offered a compelling proposition, therefore Orchard Street began its investment programme for our UK Special Situations Fund.The Fund has a capacity of £300m in total and is looking at an increasing number of interesting propositions. Orchard Street expects to continue its investment programme throughout the remainder of 2009 and into 2010.”