British Land buys and sells Lancashire shopping parks 

The developer has acquired Capitol Retail and Leisure Park for £51.5m and disposed of its 50% stake in Deepdale Retail Park for £30.3m. 

British Land bought Capitol from Royal London in a deal reflecting a net initial yield of 8.43%. The 300,000 sq ft park is let to occupiers including Next, Home Bargains, and Boots. 

The acquisition of the Preston complex was part of a wider £94m deal that also saw British Land buy the 90,000 sq ft Solartron Retail Park in Farnborough and 442 Newmarket Road in Cambridge – a 20,000 sq ft unit let to DFS. 

At Deepdale, British Land has sold its 50% stake in the 285,000 sq ft complex to Melford Capital, “in line with our strategy of actively recycling capital”, the company said. 

Kelly Cleveland, head of strategy and investment at British Land, 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% occupancy and growing ERVs.”