Ediston has now completed the lettings of units 5a, 5b and 5c which extend to a total of 18,868 sq. ft. Iceland Foods Limited has signed a new 10 year lease, on units 5b and 5c which have a total area of 13,672 sq. ft. Iceland will trade the store as a ‘Food Warehouse’. Sue Ryder has signed a 10 year lease with a 5 year tenant break option on unit 5a, which extends to 5,196 sq. ft. Both tenants were granted a short rent-free period of only three months.
The retail park was acquired in December 2017. Units 5a, 5b and 5c were vacant, but benefited from a rental guarantee from the previous owner, which was due to expire in December 2019. Ediston has paid for the reconfiguration of the units to facilitate the lettings and a capital contribution was paid to the tenants.
These transactions have secured £262,736 of income per annum beyond the expiry of the rental guarantee period. As a result of these lettings and the others which Ediston has recently announced, the vacancy rate in the Fund has reduced from 6.3% in 31 December 2018, to 3.1%.
Calum Bruce, Director of Investment at Ediston said: “Whilst fully acknowledging the challenging conditions for retail generally, our recently announced leasing transactions in Sunderland, Barnsley, Prestatyn and now Hull show that well located retail parks, let off sensible rental levels, continue to be attractive to retailers with propositions relevant to the needs of their customers.”
