Outlook for pub sales is improving at last

Published on Monday 23 November 2009 21:58

CHRISTIE & Co reports that the pubs and licensed trade market has turned the corner with the number of deals on the rise. This is confirmed by Ryden, which says that the market has become more active. It has sold five pubs on behalf of Punch Taverns, one being in Kelso where a private individual has bought the Cloisters Bar in Bridge Street – asking price of £335,000 – and the Redstone Inn, Main Road, Ayr, asking price £220,000.

STIRLING Development Agency, represented by Jones Lang LaSalle and Montagu Evans, has a new tenant at Castle Business Park – Cascade Technologies, developer in gas analysis and detection, which has taken the 13,752sq ft ground floor at Glendevon House on a ten-year deal at a rent rising to 15 per sq ft. It is a significant letting in the out-of-town market this year.

ICELAND, which has said it wants to acquire 51 former Woolworths stores, has snapped up another one by taking the former Woolworths in East Kilbride's Princes Mall on a ten-year sub-lease for the 12,208sq ft store at 165,000 a year. Cushman & Wakefield represented the head tenant, B&Q Properties, with Mason Owen for Iceland.

AND clothing retailer Ethel Austin has taken a ten-year lease on the former Woolworths store on Johnstone High Street – 12,072sq ft over two floors – at 65,000 a year. Culverwell acted for the private landlord, with Ethel Austin represented by Mason Owen.

ALBA Martial Arts, operating as Edinburgh Martial Arts College, has taken 4,450sq ft at the Abbeyhill Industrial Estate in Edinburgh on a ten-year lease at an annual rental of 31,157 (7 per sq ft). It plans to transform the unit from a former warehouse and trade counter facility into its first fully operational Scottish martial arts centre. King Sturge acted for the landlord, Joint Properties.

MONKEY Bizness is heading for Fountainpark Leisure Park in Edinburgh – the family entertainment operator has taken the 15,000sq ft former Waikiki Beach Bar unit fronting Dundee Street on a 20-year lease, on a stepped rent over the first five years rising to 70,000 at year five. It will be open for business in January. Montagu Evans acted.

FASHION retailer Internacionale Retail is to more than double the size of its store at The Centre in Livingston, taking a lease on 3,640sq ft to add to its 1,540sq ft unit. Montagu Evans acted for landlord Land Securities.

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