Warburtons toasts new £2m depot

DEALS

WARBURTONS, the UK's largest independent baking business, has started operations at its new distribution depot at the Eurocentral business park in Lanarkshire.

The £2 million, 20,000sq ft distribution facility is the latest industrial development to be built by Morgan Ashurst for the park’s developer, Muse Developments, at the park.

Steve Turner, director of Muse Developments and Eurocentral Partnership, said: “Letting a bespoke unit to a company of Warburtons’ calibre is significant news for the park and reinforces Eurocentral's attractiveness to major UK distributors looking for a central location and high-quality surroundings.”

Warburtons has taken a 20-year lease on the distribution facility on Brittain Way, Eurocentral.

The picture shows Stephen Turner, regional director, Muse Developments; Morag Lyons, marketing executive, Eurocentral Partnership and Muse Developments; Alastair Gourley, depot manager for Warburtons at Eurocentral; and Allan Pollock, Morgan Ashurst operations manager.

Offices for SWIP

SCOTTISH Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP), the asset management arm of Lloyds TSB, has bought two office properties, in Germany and the Netherlands, for €60 million.

The first, Red Square, is a newly-constructed development close to Frankfurt airport, offering Grade-A quality space. It was bought for €45.28 million and covers 19,203m in three buildings.

The second property, Bam Huis, in The Hague, is a 6,200sq m Grade-A office building in a prominent location in the

Forepark office district of The Hague. Bought for €16.2 million, it is fully let to Royal BAM Group.

SWIP, which conducts extensive research into European real estate, forecasts average total returns of 5.2 per cent a year for the major western European office markets over the next five years.

Euros for Patio Hotel

A GERMAN fund has put up €44 million for an Aberdeen hotel deal. Hypo Real Estate Bank International, a member of Hypo Real Estate Group, has provided the funds for the acquisition by Invesco’s European Hotel Real Estate Fund of the 168-bedroom Patio Hotel, to be rebranded Hilton Doubletree Aberdeen.

New owner for the Dumbuck

ONE of the west of Scotland’s best-known country house hotels, the 22-bedroom Dumbuck House Hotel, by Dumbarton, has been sold in an off-market transaction.

The new owner is Licensed Leisure, a Glasgow-based company. Agent Knight Frank says it was sold from a guide price of about £2 million.

Major Hotels Ltd decided to sell the hotel because of family reasons and to concentrate on its other hotel in Dumbarton, The Abbotsford.

Queenslie first-footer

COLLIERS CRE has secured the landmark first letting at the recently-completed new-build units at Queenslie Industrial

Estate, on behalf of Rockspring Hanover Property Unit Trust. The transaction sees the home improvement brand, Everest, take 14,113sq ft on a 15-year, £88,205-a-year lease.

The new 42,300sq ft development has nine industrial units and Everest has taken two of them. McMeeking & Co, chartered surveyors, acted for Everest.

Wills on the move

JACK Wills, the university clothing outfitter, is moving its retail premises in Edinburgh from Hanover Street to George Street because of business expansion.

It is taking 6,125sq ft at 65 George Street, part of the former Bonhams auction house. Advised by Culverwell, it has agreed a new 15-year lease subject to five-yearly upward-only rent reviews starting at £280,000. The landlord was represented by McKibbon Commercial and DTZ.

Panorama Village sale

ACTING on behalf of Partnership Projects (Scotland), Knight Frank has sold to the expanding CMYK Digital Solutions a 3,177sq ft unit at Lonmay Place in the Panorama Business Village outside Glasgow. The price was £380,000 and this follows recent sales to NIS Group Services, Barron Wood Distribution, Scaftec and a letting to Securitas. The acquired property comprises a standalone office pavilion constructed over two storeys.