Cert eyes £10m sale of Firesprite’s Liverpool office

The developer is looking for an exit, having refurbished the 50,000 sq ft Duke & Parr and secured a 12-year letting with a Sony-owned video game developer. 

Cert Property has appointed King Street Commercial to find a buyer for the asset and offers of £9.9m are being sought. 

A purchase at this price would reflect a net initial yield of 6.75%. 

Duke & Parr could prove attractive to investors due to its strong covenant. 

Last summer, Place North West revealed that Firesprite, which Sony acquired in 2021, would be moving into the building.  

The 11.5-year lease, which contains no breaks, completed in October and was the largest letting in Liverpool in three years. The previous largest came in 2019 when parent company Sony took 65,000 sq ft at Echo Place.

Firesprite pays £713,000 in rent annually, representing a passing rent of £18.38/sq ft. 

Cert bought the former Bibby Line head office for just under £3m when the shipping company relocated to Exchange Flags in 2019. Liverpool City Region Combined Authority invested nearly £5m to refurbish the site. That money, which came from the region’s Urban Development Fund and Chrysalis Fund, has since been repaid in full.