The St John’s Shopping Centre in Perth has been sold for £31.25 million.
USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme) bought the centre from BAE System Pension Funds. The property is part heritable and part long leasehold.
It is understood USS won over seven other bids. These are said to have come from British Land, Metric Property Investments, Legal & General, Northumberland Estates, London & Regional and Rockspring.
The centre is the main shopping centre in Perth offering approximately 145,000 square feet of net retail space and office accommodation. It was refurbished in 1997.
The centre is now anchored by Primark, which opened in November.
Primark, which moved in to the former British Home Stores unit, spent a significant amount of money on the site which links the St John’s shopping centre to the High Street.
It has been credited with boosting confidence in the retail sector in Perth’s High Street and encouraging firms to fill empty shop units in the High Street.
The remainder of the 38 retail units let to national multiple retailers including River Island, Top Shop, H Samuel and Monsoon.
The centre, which formed part of the portfolio managed for BAE by the investment managers OLIM Ltd, could benefit from the possible demolition of the City Hall.
Footfall in the centre has increased by 20% in the last year and Siobhan McConnell, St John’s Centre manager, expressed her pleasure at the announcement.
“We are delighted with the news about our new ownership and look forward to working with USS’s retail property team to continue to develop St John’s shopping centre as Perth’s retail destination of choice.”
USS is one of largest private sector pension funds in the UK with property assets totalling approximately £2.4 billion. USS has acquired in excess of £1 billion of commercial and residential property over the last three years and its retail portfolio includes the Gyle shopping centre in Edinburgh.
St John’s was bought by BAE Systems in 2002 from Grosvenor’s Arkle Fund, which was owned by the Duke of Westminster.
The Duke visited the centre in 2001 to make a donation to Children 1st-the centre’s nominated charity for that year.
The shopping centre was built between 1986 and 1987 and cost around £20 million to build.