In the first major retail park acquisition of 2025 a private South African investor client of Pembrey Asset Management has acquired Stane Retail Park, Colchester from the developer The Churchmanor Estates Company plc. The price paid was £33.95 million.
The property comprises a newly developed purpose-built retail park opened in phases between October 2021 and October 2022 and comprises 123,637 sq ft of retail accommodation. The scheme is anchored by an 80,000 sq ft purpose-built M&S which sits alongside a strong national tenant line up of Superdrug, Mountain Warehouse, Furniture Village, Greggs & Cook. The B&Q and Aldi are held in a separate freehold ownership and total some 99,992 sq ft.
The scheme offers an attractive WAULT of 14 years to expiries and excellent ESG credentials with a BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’.
Investec Bank PLC provided the senior loan to support the acquisition for the South African investor. Pembrey Asset Management was represented by Cushman & Wakefield. The vendor, Churchmanor Estates was represented by XPROP, their funding was provided by Close Brothers and their legal work was undertaken by Birketts LLP.
Marcus Wood at Cushman & Wakefield, commented “2025 is set to be another strong year for retail warehouse investment volumes. C&W recorded £3.5 billion of out of town stock in 2024 and whilst there was a huge surge in transaction volume in Q4, very little of that was of the quality that attracted our client towards Colchester”
Matthew Robinson, at Investec Bank PLC, commented “We are delighted to have been able to assist our client in acquiring this high quality retail asset. With a long track record of supporting both domestic and international buyers with investment and development funding solutions, we are well placed to continue supporting our clients.
Matt Cloke, at Churchmanor Estates commented “We are delighted to have completed this sale, marking the conclusion of 12 years ownership and development of Stane Park by Churchmanor Estates, which started with the opening of the adjacent leisure park in 2017. The successful sale is a testament to the strength of the location, the quality of the development and the tenant line up that we have put together”.
