LaSalle acquires Sainsbury’s store for £17.85m

GLOBAL real estate investment management company LaSalle has announced that it has bought a store rented by Sainsbury’s in Ballymena on behalf of the group which runs the pension fund for Northern Ireland government workers.

The building at Braidwater Retail Park was purchased for £17.85m from property company Corbo Properties as an investment for the NI Local Government Officers Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC).

The 60,777 sq ft store is let to Sainsbury’s on a long-term, 25-year lease.

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Osborne King and CBRE jointly advised Corbo Properties, the vendor, while LaSalle was advised by Wilkinson Williams.

This latest purchase follows LaSalle’s acquisition of two other superstores in Northern Ireland for NILGOSC last year.

Following this acquisition, the total LaSalle has invested in Northern Irish supermarkets over the last year rises to £66.45 million and LaSalle’s investment at Braidwater Retail Park to over £30 million.

Chris Fry, Director at LaSalle Investment Management, said: “We are interested in well located prime assets with long, unexpired leases. This latest purchase follows on from last year’s acquisition of a 85,119 square feet Tesco store and petrol station on Bentrim Road, Lisburn and a 70,973 square feet Sainsbury’s store on Strand Road, Londonderry. We continue to seek prime property investments with long, index linked leases across the UK.”

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Stephen Kirkpatrick, Chief Executive of Corbo Properties, added: “Having originally developed this scheme in the mid-1990s we have consistently sought to add value to the property through our proactive asset management approach.

“The sale to LaSalle at a net initial yield of 5.16% demonstrates clearly that, notwithstanding the current economic challenges, there continues to be strong institutional demand for prime assets in Northern Ireland.”