Dutch investor Meyer Bergman is set to provide a slug of funding to breathe new life into Westfield’s stalled development in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
Meyer Bergman is in advanced discussions with Westfield to inject around £120m – reflecting a yield of just over 6% – into the 550,000 sq ft Broadway shopping centre development.
If successful, the 50:50 joint venture will be the first between Meyer Bergman and Westfield.
Sovereign Land with Area Property Partners is understood to have held discussions to buy the mall outright, but walked away after the Australian shopping centre giant decided to retain a 50% stake.
Earlier this year, Meyer Bergman said there could be opportunities for it to step into a mothballed project alongside a developer. In March, chief executive Markus Meijer said: “We’d rather buy good product in the UK at a decent price than push to find distressed, complicated structures that might provide a slightly higher return but cost us four times as much time and trouble to realise.”
Westfield put the development on hold at the end of 2008 as the recession set in. It had agreed prelets for more than 50% of the space, including anchor tenants Debenhams, which is to take 117,000 sq ft, and Marks & Spencer, which will operate from 60,000 sq ft. Next, River Island, Topshop, Topman, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis and Evans are also thought to have agreed space.
Fresh proposals were submitted to Bradford council earlier this year which downsized and reconfigured the floorspace. The number of shops is thought to have been cut by 25% to 75.
Broadway is anticipated to open in 2013, making it one of the first major retail developments to be funded and resurrected after the recession.
Meyer Bergman made its first major acquisition in the UK for several years in February 2010 when it bought a 50% stake in the 580,000 sq ft Bentall shopping centre in Kingston, Surrey. It also owns the 290,000 sq ft Ilford Exchange in Essex and the 37,000 sq ft Burlington Arcade in Piccadilly, W1, in a jv with investor Thor Equities.
Westfield said earlier this year that it was considering the sale of around A$2bn (£1.3bn) of its non-core shopping centres in Australia and the UK.
Lunson Mitchenall advises Meyer Bergman. All parties declined to comment.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
