Aviva Investors, on behalf of the Lime Property Fund, has bought the University of West of Scotland from HFD Group’s Eco Campus for £53m.
The recently completed campus is subject to tenant fit-out over the next six months and, upon practical completion, will be let to the University of West of Scotland for 35 years. The 235,000 sq ft scheme will be run as the new main university campus and administrative building.
The campus is located on the Hamilton International Park near Glasgow, Scotland, and will include a mixture of administrative offices, teaching and education space, and vocation training space.
The transaction follows Lime Property Fund’s recent investments in a portfolio of care homes located in Bedford, Letchworth, Flitwick, and Watford, let to One Housing Group for 30 years, and in a modern office building in Bristol, prelet on a 15-year lease to Babcock Integrated Technology.
The Fund plans to complete several further new investments this year.
Lime Property Fund is a secure-income, long-lease property fund managed by Aviva Investors with a net value of more than £2bn. The fund, launched in 2004, targets property investments let to strong tenants on leases with inflation-linked or fixed-rental uplifts and lease terms of 15 years-plus.
This transaction takes Aviva Investors Real Estate Long Income funds’ total investment in the university sector to more than £500m over the past 24 months.
Mark Wells, origination manager at Aviva Investors, said: “HFD Group is developing an impressive high-quality campus development that will start an exciting new chapter for the University. This, coupled with a strong tenant in the university, creates a robust investment with long term income for the Lime Property Fund.”
HFD Property Group managing director Stephen Lewis said: “Having created the UK’s first carbon neutral speculative office development at EcoCampus and subsequently let that to the University of the West of Scotland, we are delighted to have now sold the development to Aviva.
“The EcoCampus is the final development at Hamilton International Park and will see the number of people working at the park increase to more than 10,000, making it one of the most successful business parks in the UK.”
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