Uxbridge: Kingsbridge acquires key mixed-use site

Kingsbridge has bought 1 High Street, 5 Vine Street and The Leisure Building, a mixed-use site in Uxbridge, for circa £9.44 million. The property comprises a 42,426 sq ft mixed-use building opposite the Intu Shopping centre.

The site has an office of 20,269 sq ft arranged over four floors, an RBS bank of 3,885 sq ft and a gym of 18,272 sq ft.

Simon Glenn, partner at DTRE, said: “We see an opportunity to re-brand and re-position this asset within the office market to offer affordable contemporary space with exposed ceilings and a design focus that gives unique character. This type of space attracts an increasingly wider base of occupiers, as opposed to just the trendy media types, as more businesses find an attractive work environment is a key aspect of employee retention and improves their bottom line.”

Oli Marcroft, associate partner at KLM Retail, said: “The property comprises an attractive mixed-used building in a strong London suburb. On the retail and leisure occupational side, the RBS bank offers the flexibility of a re-gear or a more comprehensive redevelopment to restaurant use given its prominence to the High Street. We understand this is a strong performing site for Trugym with the use complementing the rest of the building.”

Rupert Langdon, investment director at Kingsbridge, said: “The mixed-use nature of this opportunity provides Kingsbridge with an opportunity to add value whilst 80% of the income is underpinned by the strong covenants of Virgin Active, The London Borough of Hillingdon and RBS. The current average office rent is £24 per sq ft which offers a significant reversion based on our business plan to comprehensively refurbish the building to provide small 5,500 sq ft ‘design-led’ floorplates at affordable rents in the late £20s undercutting grade-A space which has achieved rents of £35 psf. With future long-term revenue streams from the gym and high-street unit as a well as a multi-let town centre office, we feel the building has excellent prospects for capital growth.”

Mark Hooper, estates director at Kingsbridge, said: “We are very pleased to have secured this investment opportunity that employs the strengths of Kingsbridge’s ‘hands-on’ asset management skills and have now broken into the Greater London/M25 market which we like on account of strong demographics, the loss of affordable office space to PDR, as well as the fundamental connectivity to Heathrow, the M25 and Central London.”

DTRE and KLM Retail acted for Kingsbridge Estates.

Source: CoStar