Acquisitions - Case Studies

Southchurch Drive, Clifton, Nottingham

Acting on behalf of Land and Estate Developments UK Limited, Bartlett Property acquired a 10,000 sq ft former Kwik Save supermarket for the redevelopment and conversion to a small parade of shops, incorporating a national convenience store operator, veterinary practice and A5 takeaway.

The property lay vacant for years and it was only as a result of Bartlett Property’s ability to see beyond the obvious, interpret the potential demand and link all the disciplines together that the site was acquired and viably redeveloped.

Vets 4 Pets, Beeston

Bartlett Property, using our knowledge of Vets 4 Pets requirements, identified and introduced the former Subaru Car Showroom on Wollaton Road, Beeston.

We were retained to advise on the acquisition and the new lease was duly successfully completed. The practice opened its doors on 12 October 2009 and continues to do brisk business.

Martin McColls

Martin McColl is the UK’s leading neighbourhood retail group with over 150 stores trading throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

McColls is well known for its convenience stores in neighbourhood, metro, High Street and Travel locations but as a result of our market awareness and sector knowledge, we were able to identify an opportunity combining a neighbourhood convenience store with a petrol filling station profit centre.

We subsequently acquired the former S R Thomson convenience stores and high volume petrol filling station on Glascote Road, Tamworth. The property formed part of a larger motor trade holding including car sales, workshop, MOT bay and car wash but we were able to navigate the complexities of separating the most valuable portions of the property for McColl’s purchase.

United Carpets

Over the last 18 months Bartlett Property have acquired 12 new stores on behalf of United Carpets and Beds. Units have been identified and secured in Blackpool, Melton Mowbray, Runcorn, Manchester, Liverpool, Kidderminster, Wednesbury, Hall Green and Perry Barr in Birmingham, South Elmsall, Brownhills and Cheetham Hill.

Recently we negotiated the assignment of the Head Lease of a former Somerfield store on Lincoln Road in Peterborough successfully completing the deal quickly under severe time constraints to allow the store to open for trade prior to Christmas.

We are fully retained agents for United Carpets and continue to seek opportunities throughout the Midlands and North.

In addition, we became aware that Grattan was intending to withdraw from the UK retailing market and close their High Street store operations. The stores traded as Big Discount stores and offered good sized retailing space in off prime locations which are ideally suited to United Carpets.

Having reviewed the entire portfolio, we identified initially 4 stores that were of potential interest. As ever, we worked closely with our clients and ultimately settled on a portfolio of 3 properties which the client wished to secure.

The transaction was by no means straight forward as 2 of the properties were leasehold and the third property freehold. As well as the normal due diligence, there was a further complication in that the freehold and leasehold properties were being acquired by our client through separate vehicles.

After lengthy negotiations and overcoming a number of hurdles the transaction ultimately concluded and the 3 properties have been absorbed into our client’s portfolio.