The RO is pleased to announce the successful sale of Norwich House, Hull, to Augustus House Limited for £1,073,000; as well as the sale of 1-4 Station Approach, Frome, for £1,000,000 to Station Approach Frome Ltd .
Both sales represent a further realisation of a strategy to focus on gateway cities and market towns for the property division of the Hertfordshire based family owned trading business. The Group will redeploy this capital into further investment opportunities in its preferred locations.
Norwich House in Hull is a multi-let office and retail building with office suites arranged over four floors and three retail units on the ground floor totalling approximately 2,948 sq m (31,733 sq. ft.) with six car spaces. It houses blue chip tenants such as Regus, Scope and Newcross Healthcare Solutions.
The property, which was original purchased by the RO in 2006 is centrally located in Hull City Centre with attractive views over Queens Garden and close to a number of important landmarks including the Princess Quay, New Hull Theatre and Hull Station along with large commercial outlets such as Marks & Spencer’s and Primark.
1-4 Station Approach in Frome is a multi-let industrial estate, acquired in 2005, which comprises four units totalling 23,669 sq. ft. on a site area of approximately 1.46 acres, with three well-established tenants who have all been in occupation for over 10 years, indicating the value of the well-placed location directly opposite Frome Railway Station. The property itself also benefits from a large car park to the front, providing 32 marked car parking spaces, an important asset considering the nearby transport link.
Since purchase the eastern Somerset town has grown in popularity especially as a commuter hub for workers in Bath. Furthermore, Frome was recently voted the “sixth coolest town in Britain” by The Times newspaper and has a reputation for good independent retailers, providing a desirable local centre for the surrounding district as well as housing for people commuting to surrounding towns.
Commenting on the asset sales David Kershaw, General Manager, RO Real Estate said:
The sale of both of these properties is timely considering our current strategic focus, which is to concentrate our investment on the South of England. Given the current property environment more generally we believe that this is a good time to have liquidity and further capital to take advantage of attractive opportunities which we expect will present themselves next year.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at the RO who was involved in these transactions, as always we value our highly skilled and committed team who work very hard to make every acquisition, development or disposal a success.
In Hull, the RO was advised by Barnsdales and Dentons UK and Middle East LLP, while Augustus House Limited was advised by Mark Brearley & Co and JMW Solicitors LLP.
In Frome, the RO was advised by Dentons and Alder King LLP while Station Approach Frome Ltd was advised by Fairlight Financial and Rosamund Coppen.