Propertynews.com Logo
Castle Court
20 July 2017

£125m deal to purchase CastleCourt to be completed this week

Share

A £125m deal to purchase Belfast’s CastleCourt shopping centre is due to be completed this week.

The city centre site has been owned by Hermes property fund since 2002.

Wirefox, a Holywood property firm, headed by BJ Eastwood, is believed to have been interested in the retail site for some time.

It is believed that contracts are to be exchanged for the site this week.

Last month, the Belfast Telegraph highlighted that this deal was likely to be finalised within weeks.

During this period Wirefox commented that it does not comment on “speculation and rumour.”

As CastleCourt is one of the best-known shopping centres in Northern Ireland, this sale will be one of the largest single commercial property sales to take place here in recent years.

In 2015, the shopping centre underwent as rebrand after a quarter of a century in business

Wirefox has bought many retail and office developments across the UK in the last year including a £35m office portfolio in Scotland. It has taken on nine buildings close to Glasgow that covers 400,000 sq.ft.

Bangor shopping complex Bloomfield was bought by London investment firm Ellandi and Tristan Capital Partners for £54.5m in 2015

Other major deals secured here in recent years included the sale of Ballymena’s Fairhill shopping centre for over £45m.

The Outlet near Banbridge and Junction One near Antrim, two of Northern Ireland’s largest shopping retail parks, were sold to Lotus Group for £40m.

Foyleside in Londonderry and Forestside in south Belfast and were also on sale for around £150m. However, it’s understood both have been taken off the market.

A commercial property report from CBRE has highlighted that, while the second quarter of the year has been slow, some £220m of deals are, at present, going through legals and are expected to be completed in the coming weeks.

Throughout the second quarter of the year, only £18m was invested in seven separate transactions across Northern Ireland.

Related Articles