Manchester’s Sunlight House sold for £42m
Abrdn has sold the historic 210,000 sq ft office building to a joint venture between Kinrise and real estate fund Karrev.
Karrev, a fund managed by ValinvestRE, is providing the equity, while Kinrise is to lead on the development strategy, Place North West understands.
A special purpose vehicle called Kinrise Sunlight was established earlier this year.
Cecile Champy, co-founder of ValinvestRE and director at Karrev, is a former director at Tristan Capital Partners.
She is also listed as a director at two other Kinrise vehicles, including the one delivering the overhaul of Martins Bank in Liverpool.
Kinrise bought Martins Bank from a subsidiary of Starwood Capital for around £16m 12 months ago and is embarking on a comprehensive overhaul of the listed building that will see it converted into offices.
Sunlight House offers Kinrise another opportunity to redevelop a grade two-listed building in a city centre location, with the backing of Karrev.
Abrdn put the office up for sale for £38m in March, instructing CBRE to find a buyer. The amount paid for the building exceeds the asking price by £4m.
The Quay Street property has a vacancy rate of 19%, space which was recently refurbished.
Tenants at Sunlight House include Booking.com, which occupies around 62,000 sq ft at the building but is to depart for Allied London’s Manchester Goods Yard soon.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities accounts for around 25% of rental income at Sunlight House.
Sunlight House had been put up for sale at £54m in April 2019 by the owner, then branded as Aberdeen Standard Investments, but the sale was pulled a few months later.
Sunlight House was bought by Scottish Widows Investment Partners, part of Aberdeen Asset Management, from Aviva for £35m in 2014.
“The acquisition of Sunlight House marks our further commitment to the Manchester market, one of the most dynamic in the UK,” said Kinrise co-founder George Aberdeen.
“It is a great addition to our growing portfolio and we are looking forward to injecting a new lease of life into this important building.”
Carrick Real Estate acted for the purchasers and CBRE acted for Abrdn.
Lovely building this. The real surprise though was that there is a actually a Department for levelling up and they are based here. That must be a quiet office!
By Anonymous