LCP and Evolve Estates acquire The Centre Livingston

Commercial property investment companies LCP and Evolve Estates – both part of M Core – have jointly acquired The Centre in Livingston, their largest retail centre yet.

The scheme – which is located in the centre of the Scottish town – was acquired for an undisclosed sum from Hines.

Spanning one million sq ft, The Centre Livingston comprises 166 shops, restaurants, cafés, and leisure amenities. Anchor tenants at the scheme include Asda, River Island, H&M, Primark, and M&S. The scheme is located nearby to three car parks, with a total of 3,000 spaces.

Danny O’Keefe, founding partner of Evolve, said: “For the past few years, we have focused on building our retail portfolio, acquiring convenience-led shopping parades, centres and retail parks across the UK, which we believe to be undervalued and offer long-term rental growth.

“The Centre Livingston is our most ambitious retail acquisition yet in the UK and we are excited about the possibilities for improving it, which our proactive in-house team of experienced asset and property managers will be looking at now.

“They have a significant network of contacts across many national brands and they are already looking to attract big names as well as ambitious local traders who want to grow their businesses.”

Ben Chislett, group chief operating officer of LCP, added: “One of the questions we always ask when looking to acquire retail centres is ‘does it have potential to improve?’ and we believe The Centre Livingston does. The annual footfall is approximately 14.5m and the latest data show that people stay there for well over an hour and spend £62 a head at a time.

“We want to increase these figures further and enhance the shopping and leisure experience for those millions of people who visit the centre every year. We are really looking forward to getting to know the tenants and engaging the local community.”

M Core has invested a total of over £160m over the last 12 months into 25 retail centres. Major acquisitions have included Alexandra Retail Park, Grimsby, Parc-Y-Llyn Retail Park, Aberystwyth, and Ocean Plaza, Southport.

In November, the group completed a £35m acquisition of the ‘Harrier’ retail portfolio, spanning over 334,000 sq ft of assets across England and Scotland.

The group said it has £300 million available now to invest in retail sites, ranging in size from £500,000 to £30m, and portfolios up to £150 million. 

Bradley Maher of Cited (formerly Prime Retail) acted on behalf of M Core. Savills acted for Hines. The scheme’s retained letting agents are Savills and EYCO.