St Oswald's Retail Park, Gloucester sold to city council

Published by

Nicky Godding

Property company Hammerson plc has exchanged contracts on the sale of St Oswald's Retail Park, Gloucester, to the city council for £54 million. The sale price reflects a net initial yield of 8.5 per cent, and is eight per cent below the 30 June 2019 book value.

The 20,900m² scheme, north of Gloucester city centre offers a range of bulky goods, retail and leisure retail outlets. Flagship tenants include Homesense, B&Q and Wren Kitchens. When B&Q opened at St Oswald's more than ten years ago, it was said to be the biggest DIY retail store in Europe.

Hammerson originally developed the site in 2005, and has since increased the overall number of units on the park to improve the brand mix.

Following this transaction, Hammerson has achieved £577m of disposals in 2019, exceeding its minimum disposal target, of in excess of £500m, for the financial year. This includes the sale of a major stake in its Italie Deux flagship destination in Paris for £423m, announced in July, as well as additional retail park disposals.

David Atkins, Hammerson Chief Executive, said: "Despite a challenging investment market, we are successfully executing disposals in line with our priority to reduce debt and strengthen our balance sheet. These transactions also give us the flexibility to capitalise on the opportunities we see in the market, particularly with regards to our City Quarters pipeline, which is core to the future direction and success of our business."

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.