Capitol Centre bought for £50m as new owners back out of Deepdale Retail Park

The shopping and hospitality venue in London Way, Walton-le-Dale is one of three snapped up in a spending spree by British Land, the largest owners and operators of retail parks in the UK, it was announced today.

The company has paid a total of £94m for the shopping parks in Preston, Farnborough in Hampshire and a DFS warehouse in Cambridge.

But to help finance the deal the London-based company has sold its 50 per cent stake in Preston's Deepdale Retail Park for just over £30m.

The bill for buying the 300,000 sq ft Capitol Centre from Royal London Asset Management came to £51.5m. The site, which has parking for 1,438 cars, includes 20 retail units including Next, Boots, Currys, Dunelm and Home Bargains. It also includes the leisure side of the park which has Waitrose, Vue Cinema, Nuffield Health gym and a couple of restaurants as tenants.

British Land, which owns a stake in 66 retail parks including Meadowhall in Sheffield and Ealing Broadway in London, has paid £35m for Solartron Retail Park in Farnborough and £7.35m for large DFS location in Newmarket Road, Cambridge.

The company says its acquisitions and the sale of its half share in Deepdale Retail Park to the UK real estate investor Melford Capital for £30.3m, is part of its strategy of "actively recycling capital".

Kelly Cleveland, head of strategy and investment, said: "With retailers increasingly focused on the role of their stores, retail parks have emerged as a preferred format, due to their compatibility with omni channel retail, their affordability and appeal to online resilient businesses.

"This is driving good occupational demand across the portfolio reflected in our 97 per cent occupancy and growing ERVs (Estimate Rental Values)."

The news comes after British Land revealed a plunge in the valuation of its offices and shops as the FTSE 100 firm was weighed down by higher borrowing costs. Shares in the company dropped as a result. This morning they had rallied and were 0.7 per cent higher at 402.50 pence each.