LAND Securities has highlighted strong performances by its malls in Glasgow and Livingston as it signalled its intention to off-load non-flagship assets.
The commercial property developer said the sale of The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland for £152 million, and its purchase of a 30 per cent stake in Bluewater, Kent, underlined its focus on the "best retail assets". The Bluewater deal, worth £696 million, gave Land full management control of the centre, as well as 110 acres of surrounding land.
Land said Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow, a joint venture with Henderson Global Investors, and The Centre in Livingston had performed well amid challenging conditions in its first quarter.
It pointed to the "positive impact" made by Buchanan Quarter, the mixed retail and residential development it launched across from the Galleries last year to the city's shopping mix, highlighting that it had brought fashion chain Forever 21 to Scotland for the first time.
And it noted progress with plans to extend Buchanan Galleries, confirming that Marks & Spencer, Next and Showcase Cinema de Luxe have all committed to take space at the site next to the John Lewis department store.
Katherine Armstead, senior portfolio manager for Land Securities, said: "Our Scottish assets in Glasgow and Livingston continue to perform well in a challenging marketplace.
"We are always reviewing the shopping and leisure mix at both centres to ensure we are providing the best experience to our customers."
She added: "The Centre, Livingston, is looking to increase its leisure offering to reinforce the centre's reputation as West Lothian's shopping destination."
Elsewhere in the UK, Land said it had secured £15.4 million of development lettings in London since April 1, with a further £6.7 million in solicitors' hands.
It said these deals represent a total of 385,000 square feet of commercial property space.
On occupancy, it said £4.2 million of investment lettings were signed in the first quarter, with £10.4 million in solicitors' hands. Voids were booked at 2.4 per cent on a like-for-like basis, compared with 2.2 per cent on March 31, and retailer sales were up 4.1 per cent on the same quarter last year on a same store basis.
Total retailer sales grew by 4 per cent over the period.
Shares in Land Securities Group closed up 1p at 1029p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article
You must verify your phone number before you can comment.
Please enter your phone number below, and a verification code will be sent to you by text message.
Please enter the six-digit verification code sent to you by SMS.
Your verification code has been sent a second time to the mobile phone number you provided.
Your verification code has been sent a third time to the mobile phone number you provided.
You have requested your verification code too many times. Please try again later.
Didn’t receive a code? Send it againThe code you entered has not been recognised.
Please try again
You have failed to enter a correct code after three attempts.
Please try again later.
Your phone number has been verified.
Your phone number has been stored with your account details. We will never use it for anything other than verifying that you are the legitimate owner of this account.