Shropshire Council has completed the acquisition of three shopping centres in Shrewsbury for a total sum of £51 million.
The trio of properties include the Charles Darwin, Riverside and Pride Hill shopping centres, which together total 428,400sq ft of retail and leisure space.
The deal was completed by the UK Commercial Property Trust and was advised by Standard Life Investments.
It comes amid a raft of local retail investment in recent years, with local councils spending £3 billion on commercial property in 2015, up from just £500 million in the three prior years.
“The sale of these three centres is in line with our previously stated strategy of reducing our portfolio’s weighting towards retail,” Standard Life fund manager Will Fulton said.
“Furthermore, the sale provides us with additional financial resources which we intend to recycle into other investment opportunities that fit with the company’s investment strategy.
“We have been discussing long-term options for these centres with Shropshire Council for a while which ultimately led to negotiations around the council acquiring them and managing them going forward.
“We believe that this is a very satisfactory outcome for both parties and for the future of the centres.”
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