L&G Property kick starts redevelopment at Faraday Retail Park

Legal & General Property ("LGP"), has announced that, on behalf of the Life Fund ("the Fund"), it has pre-let three retail warehouse units on the site of a former Tesco supermarket, at Faraday Retail Park, Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire and has started work on site demolishing the existing building.

Three of the four units, which range in size from 9,500 sq ft to 14,000 sq ft, have been pre-let to Currys, Mothercare and Arcadia, trading as Outfit, on 10-year leases. The lettings have taken place at rents in the region of £19-£20 psf, further driving rental levels on the park. The remaining unit will provide 7,180 sq ft and there is good demand for this accommodation

The site of the former Tesco unit has been vacant since 2005, when LGP relocated the supermarket to a larger 103,000 sq ft anchor unit within the retail park. LGP has successfully gained planning consent for the redevelopment of the existing unit to provide four new retail warehouse units totalling circa 41,000 sq ft, along with additional mezzanine floor space. Located in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, Faraday Retail Park is an open A1 park that provides circa 270,000 sq ft of retail space across the 11 existing units which were recently refurbished. Existing tenants include Tesco, Next, Argos and Matalan. The park benefits from very strong transport links which include easy access to the South Circular road and Glasgow's suburbs.

James Whitehill, Senior Fund Manager at Legal & General Property, commented: "The development of these four new retail units at Faraday Retail Park is in line with the Fund's strategy of driving asset management activities to underpin outperformance.

"This new development immediately adds value to the park whilst providing opportunities to further enhance rental levels over the medium to long term. The new tenant line-up re-positions the park and adds to its already strong retail offer, which should in turn attract additional occupiers to the scheme. The new units also provide an opportunity to re-invigorate the already Open A1 dominated tenant mix, which will further add to the overall appeal of the park to its shoppers."