Bidders for the £150m forward-funding of Summer Row in Wolverhampton have approached developer Multi Development about buying a slice of another of its projects to facilitate a deal.
Netherlands-based Multi has received proposals from a number of parties about a combined deal to fund the 563,500 sq ft Summer Row and buy a stake in its Southgate shopping centre in Bath.
Sources stressed that the 414,000 sq ft Southgate was not currently for sale, however. The £360m development, which Multi owns in a 50:50 joint venture with Aviva Investors, is under construction, with part of it already open. Practical completion is scheduled for November 2011.
The Wolverhampton scheme has yet to start, and Multi is focused on progressing the project following the loss of its previous funding partner two years ago.
A source said: “Multi’s priority is to finish Bath and to fund Wolverhampton. Some people have raised the possibility of buying into Bath, but that is not a priority for Multi and it has not made a decision.”
Pan-European investor Meyer Bergman, Sovereign Land with AREA Property Partners and British Land are all understood to have submitted funding proposals for Summer Row.
The West Midlands scheme is to be anchored by Debenhams and Marks & Spencer. It had been scheduled to open this year.
Last month, Multi said that it would be moving out of investment to refocus primarily on shopping centres and town centre regeneration projects in “strategic collaboration with professional investors”. In March, it sold four shopping centres and five development projects in Germany, Spain and Portugal to fellow Dutch investor Corio for €1.3bn (£1.1bn).
DTZ is advising Multi.
