Praxis has expanded its investment in retail with the acquisition of a shopping centre in the north east of England.
Praxis said it bought Blaydon Shopping Centre near Newcastle for 拢30m (鈧�34.1m), taking the UK regional property firm鈥檚 investment in retail to 拢50m in the last 12 months. It also increases the company鈥檚 total number of schemes to eight.
The asset comprises the entirety of the retail provision for the Newcastle suburb, the 120,000sqft Blaydon scheme is anchored by a 70,000sqft Morrison鈥檚 supermarket and incorporates the public library and medical centre.
James Hewitt, the investment manager at Praxis Capital, said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been
looking to increase our retail allocation since the backend of 2016, but it has taken time for the market to reprice itself. We are realistic about retail fundamentals and spend a lot of time interrogating the detail when underwriting individual schemes, but we don鈥檛 believe that all retail is in terminal decline.
鈥淲e stand ready to invest further as and when we can find the right centres, in the right location, at the right price, albeit there are still a lot of sellers in denial about the value of these assets, so patience is the key.鈥�
