FreshStart Living has bought a vacant office block at Capital Shopping Centres’ Victoria Centre in Nottingham to develop into student flats.
CSC has sold the 30,000 sq ft building to Freshstart for an undisclosed sum. The Salford-based developer plans to spend £5m on transforming the building into 157 student apartments.
FreshStart has renamed the former office block Victoria House Halls.
The scheme will be available to investors to purchase individual student pods on a 125-year long leasehold basis from £27,500, with FreshStart anticipating rents of £85 per week, thus generating a gross return of 13%.
Stuart Cook, acquisitions manager at FreshStart said: “Victoria House Halls is conveniently located for students at Nottingham Trent University, with the building just a two-minute walk from the city centre campus as well as being located adjacent to shops, restaurants and other leisure attractions.”
Work on the project is due to start in January 2012, with completion expected in September 2012 in time for the start of the 2012-2013 academic year.
Capital Shopping Centres is planning a partial redevelopment and extension of the 981,000 sq ft Victoria Centre, which will increase it to 1.5m sq ft.
The extension will provide a new department store, 39 new shops and restaurants, a health club and a 10-screen cinema, as well as a new bus station and improved parking. A detailed planning application was submitted last June.
Nick.whitten@estatesgazette.com
