FREEHOLD MULTI LET OFFICE INVESTMENT 69-75 THORPE ROAD, NORWICH NR1 IUA
Investment Summary Multi let office investment located on the main arterial route into Norwich, 1 mile to the east of the city centre Provides a three storey office of 25,326 sq ft (2,352.75 sq m) plus 82 car spaces Attractive car parking ratio of 1:308 sq ft Substantially refurbished since 2002 providing good quality air-conditioned offices with flexible accommodation on each floor in a range of suites from 653 sq ft to 5,442 sq ft Let to 6 tenants providing a total income of 301,447 per annum ( 11.90 per sq ft overall) AWULT of 5.12 years, and 2.53 years to break Medium term potential for residential conversion and extension (subject to obtaining the necessary statutory consents) Offers sought in excess of 3,200,000 for the freehold interest, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT, reflecting an attractive net initial yield of 8.85% assuming standard purchaser s costs of 6.47% 2
Location Norwich is a major East Anglian centre situated approximately 110 miles north of London, 60 miles north east of Cambridge and 40 miles north of Ipswich. The city had a resident population in 2011 of approximately 132,000 which is estimated to now be over 150,000 in 2018, and 250,000 within the Greater Norwich area and suburbs. The A11 connects Norwich to Cambridge and the M11. The A140 provides a link to Ipswich and the A47 links Norwich to the A1 and the Midlands. Road communications have improved further with the full duelling of the A11. There are two mainline rail services per hour to London's Liverpool Street station with a fastest journey time of 1 hour 40 minutes. Norwich International Airport offers regular flights to domestic and European destinations including Amsterdam Schiphol, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Manchester. It is a vibrant city which has experienced significant development activity over recent years and is ranked as the 7th fastest growing economy. Major projects include the regeneration of the Riverside area, completion of the Forum Library and Lendlease's shopping centre at Intu Chapelfield which provides 530,000 sq ft of retail, leisure and catering space and 1,000 car spaces. Norwich is ranked 11th (2017 HDH) in the UK's top retail centres. TechVelocity, one of Norwich s principal digital accelerator companies has stated that it intends to double the size of the city s digital economy by 2020. The turnover of Norwich s digital economy was estimated at 211m in the latest Tech Nation Report, with digital tech businesses employing 3,027 people. The Quadram Institute, which researches into the global challenges in food related disease and human health, launched its new 40m Biotechnical and Bioscience Research Council (BBSRC) funded research program. The Institute s new HQ building at Norwich Research Park opened in Q3 2018. A1 Luton M25 M1 Peterborough A1 A14 Cambridge A1M LONDON Heathrow King s Lynn A47 A10 M11 M25 A11 Newmarket Stansted A47 A12 A1067 A11 A47 A14 A140 A140 Felixstowe Harwich A1042 NORWICH A47 Bury St. Edmunds Ipswich Over ten million tourists and 1.5 million overnight visitors are attracted to the city each year, with tourism being worth about 700 million per year to the city and supporting 12,000 jobs. The local economy is dominated by a few key long established employers concentrated in the finance and manufacturing sectors. The business base occupiers include Aviva, Marsh, Virgin Money, Moneyfacts, Archant, Kettle Foods, PWC and Anglian Windows. The city has an established reputation for food research and the Norwich Research Park (NRP) is one of the leading classes for this type of development. A 26 million Government grant has enabled the second phase of development at NRP. Other significant occupiers include the city and county councils, HM Revenue & Customs and HMSO. Norwich A47 A12 3
CLARENCE RD. To city centre PRINCE OF WALES RD. RIVERSIDE ROAD ST LEONARDS ROAD A1242 THORPE ROAD COTMAN ROAD NORWICH LOWER CLARENCE ROAD MATLOCK RD. THORPE ROAD A47 River Wensun KOBLENZ AVENUE CREMOME LANE SALISBURY ROAD Riverside Retail Park A1242 CARROW ROAD WHERRY ROAD Norwich City Football Club A47 Situation The property fronts the south side of Thorpe Road, which is one of the main arterial routes into Norwich and links into the A47 trunk road to the ea This junction is the link between the existing southern by-pass and the new northern distributor road. The property has a wide frontage to Thorpe Road and enjoys good prominence. Thorpe Road has a mix of residential and commercial occupiers with several other office blocks in the vicinity; some of which have however been sold for conversion into residential use. Nearby commercial occupiers include Broadland District Council, Alan Boswell Insurance and Financial Planners, Salvation Army, Develop, Emerging Futures, Roche Surveyors, The Broads Authority, Nurture Financial Planning, Rostrons Accountants, BDO, Tobar Group and Orbit Group. The St Andrews, Meridian and Broadland Business Parks all lie to the east of the property and offer modern business park office accommodation. The city centre, Norwich Railway Station and Norwich City Football Club and adjacent retail park are approximately one mile to the we View of Thorpe Road 4
Description The property comprises a purpose built, three storey office block built in the mid 1970s. The property is of concrete framed construction under a flat roof. The windows are aluminium framed, single glazed casements. The accommodation is very flexible and set out in two wings around a central circulation core with fire escapes at each end. Male and female WCs are located on each floor (disabled at ground) with showers at first floor. Due to the sloping nature of the site there is undercroft and surface parking at the rear of the site within a secure and gated car park. The building is multi-let and has undergone substantial refurbishment since 2002. All suites now present to a good standard with the following specification: Heating/cooling air conditioning Suspended ceilings with recessed lighting Perimeter trunking Carpets Solid floors with some underfloor trunking Two 8 person lifts serving all floors Male and female WCs on each floor and an accessible facility on the ground floor 82 marked car parking spaces The reception and ground floor west office areas are currently undergoing refurbishment. The communal areas are heated via a gas fired central heating system to radiators. At lower ground level, there are plant and post areas, cleaners cupboard and a caretaker s office. These are accessed from the car park. There is a plant room at roof level. The extensive flat roof provides far reaching views of the surrounding area and subject to the necessary consents could provide the ability to extend the building. 5
Ground Floor plan Vacant Outlook Publishing Car Dealership First Floor plan Vacant Mott Macdonald Next GeoSolutions Second Floor plan Certas Energy MJS 6
1 5 HEATHSIDE ROAD ROAD 71 to 105 MATLOCK ROAD 2 1 79 81 CREMORNE LANE 47 to 70 Site The property comprises a site area of 0.31 hectares (0.77 acres). Tenure The property is held freehold as shown edged red on the site plan. 188 176 174 89 148 15.5m 164 150 to 152 154 THORPE ROAD 69 to 75 Thorpe House 53 to 137 10 to 30 139 141 31 to 42 1 to 9 GLENDENNING ROAD 76 to 118 120 to 146 GLENDENNING 0m 10m 20m 30m 7
Accommodation & Tenancy Schedule The property is let to six tenants in accordance with the following tenancy schedule on full repairing and insuring terms with service charge provisions for management of the communal areas. All the leases, except for Mott Macdonald, are excluded from the security of tenure provisions of the Landlord & Tenant Act 1954. The vendor will provide a 12 month rent, rates and service charge guarantee for the vacant suites. Service Charge The service charge expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2017 was 99,123.30 ( 3.91 per sq ft). The service charge expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2018 was 98,350 ( 3.88 per sq ft), which is also the budget for the current year ending 31 December 2019. There are no shortfalls. Further information is available upon reque Floor Tenant Area NIA Area NIA Car Lease Start Lease End Next Review Rent PA Comment (Suite) (sq m) (sq ft) Spaces (Tenant Break) ( per sq ft) Part Ground West Car Dealer Media Ltd 60.66 653 2 01/02/2019 31/01/2021-10,000... ( 15.31) Part Ground West Vacant / Guarantee - 225.09 2,423 8 - - - 30,288 Refurbishment underway and is to be completed by...... under refurbishment ( 12.50) completion of the sale. The vendor will provide a 12 month rent, rates and service... charge guarantee. Ground East Outlook Publishing Ltd 469.79 5,057 14 20/08/2018 19/08/2028 20/08/2023 61,620 6 months break notice. Mutual landlord/tenant break... (20/08/2023) ( 12.18) option. Part 1st West Next GeoSolutions UKCS Ltd 135.72 1,461 4 13/02/2018 12/02/2023-19,500 6 months break notice.... (13/02/2021) ( 13.35) Landlord break options on 2nd, 3rd and 4th years... (3 months notice) subject to a break penalty of 10,400... (2nd year), 7,600 (3rd year), 4,800 (4th year). Part 1st West Vacant / Guarantee (Current 169.91 1,829 5 - - - 22,862 The vendor will provide a 12 month rent, rates and... tenant vacating 31.3.2019) ( 12.50) service charge guarantee. 1st East Mott Macdonald Ltd 492.74 5,304 15 14/04/2013 13/04/2023 59,474 6 months break notice.... (13/04/2020) ( 11.21) 2nd West MJP Conveyancing Ltd 293.28 3,157 10 29/01/2019 28/07/2029 29/07/2024 39,060 Rent commencement date 1/10/2019. Vendor to top up.... (29/07/2024) ( 12.37)... 2nd East Certas Energy UK Ltd 505.56 5,442 15 09/10/2018 08/10/2021 58,643... 3 months break notice.... (09/10/2020) ( 10.78) Total 2,352.75 25,326 73 demised 301,447... (82 total)... 8
Tenant Covenants MJP Conveyancing Limited MJP Conveyancing are an online firm of property solicitors based in Norwich. See www.mjpconveyancing.com D&B Rating E2 30.04.2017 30.04.2016 30.04.2015 Total Assets 494,166 433,416 278,007 Tangible Net Worth 65,230 17,201 ( 147,066) Outlook Net Current Assets (Liabilities) 59,873 12,775 ( 150,533) Outlook Publishing Ltd Outlook Publishing Ltd are an online and printed B2B magazines publisher. Magazines include Africa Outlook, Asia Outlook and Europe & Middle East Outlook. See www.outlookpublishing.com D&B Rating A2 28.02.2018 28.02.2017 29.02.2016 Total assets 918,438 380,984 426,276 Tangible Net Worth 481,461 187,883 150,954 Net Current Assets (Liabilities) 442,176 175,697 132,445 Next GeoSolutions UKCS Limited Next GeoSolutions UKCS Limited are a geoscience and engineering service provider that operate in the Energy, Infrastructure and Utilities Markets. See www.nextgeosolutions.com Next GeoSolutions D&B Rating A1 31.12.2017 31.12.2016 31.12.2015 Total Assets 1,839,404 591,146 725,133 Tangible Net Worth 486,723 354,454 170,184 Net Current Assets (Liabilities) 472,423 352,954 168,414 Mott Macdonald 9
Mott Macdonald Limited The Mott MacDonald Group is an engineering consultancy with headquarters in the United Kingdom. It employs 16,000 staff in 150 countries. The company has worked on many notable projects. It was the design engineer for London Heathrow Terminal 5 sub-structures and foundations. See www.mottmac.com D&B Rating 5A1 31.12.2017 31.12.2016 31.12.2015 Sales Turnover 707,964,000 675,105,000 642,610,000 Profit / (Loss Before Taxes) 29,482,000 46,975,000 40,720,000 Tangible Net Worth 327,179,000 310,257,000 307,724,000 Net Current Assets (Liabilities) 316,508,000 342,483,000 346,484,000 Certas Energy UK Limited Certas Energy UK Limited are the largest independent distributors of fuel and lubricants in the UK. It delivers over 6 billion litres of oil to customers across Britain every year. See www.certasenergy.co.uk Mott Macdonald D&B Rating N1 31.03.2017 31.03.2016 31.03.2015 Sales Turnover 3,605,648,000 3,399,451,922 4,308,866,386 Profit / (Loss Before Taxes) ( 179,000) ( 4,101,336) 5,837,568 Tangible Net Worth ( 83,340,000) ( 89,507,767) ( 99,831,291) Net Current Assets (Liabilities) ( 200,710,000) ( 174,393,058) ( 175,477,427) Car Dealer Media Limited The company was incorporated in June 2017 and as a recent company there are currently no published accounts. The company is an online car sales platform. Certas Energy UK 6410
Norwich Office Market Norwich was amongst the UK s fastest growing cities in Q4 2017, according to Irwin Mitchell s Spring 2018 UK Powerhouse Report. Norwich s economy expanded by 1.5% (the 7th fastest growing economy). The period of strong performance continued through to the end of 2018 and which is estimated to have grown by 1.6%. The office availability rate as at December 2018 was down to its lowest level for many years at 5% from 12.6% in 2011 partly due to more than 500,000 sq ft being lost to alternative uses. This has had the effect of increasing rental growth in second hand office space. Prime office rents currently stand at 17 per sq ft and this is anticipated to rise to a new peak level of 18 per sq ft by 2021 and go on to 19 per sq ft by 2023. Good secondary rents stand at 15 per sq ft. (Source: Bidwells - Our View on Norwich Offices, Winter 2018). Eastern Region Investment Market Recent office investment transactions in the Eastern Region include: Address Tenant (s) Unexpired Term Price Net Date... Initial Yield Visteon, 1 Springfield Lyons, Engineering Services Ltd 5.50 years 8.3m 8.20% Dec 2018 Chelmsford Saxon House, BGL Group Ltd 10.8 years 7.1m 6.42% Nov 2018 Orton Southgate, Peterborough 19 Upper King Street, 4 tenants AWULT 6.38 years Norwich (6.03 years to break) 2.52m 7.40% Sept 2018 Thorpe Park, Peterborough Northgate Arinso UK Limited 8.5 years 8.7m 7.19% June 2018 Norwich Residential Market The vendor has had plans drawn up for converting and extending the current building to provide up to 52 flats, which could potentially be undertaken subject to obtaining vacant possession, permitted development rights and the necessary statutory consents. See page 12. The property is well placed to attract strong demand as a permitted development/residential opportunity. The location is such that 69-75 Thorpe Rd is ideal to take advantage of links to Broadland Business Park and the city centre. This fits perfectly with the requirements of the growing young first time buyer market, the most likely demographic for such a scheme. Prime city centre and riverside apartments in Norwich regularly average in excess of 350 per sq ft with notable exceptions reaching over 500, more broadly schemes of this nature approach 300-350 per sq ft subject to parking and the property s position. Examples include: Plot 54 The Bridge, Wherry Road 2 bed fifth floor apartment (742 sq ft) Sold June 2018 271,000-365 psf Plot 61 The Bridge, Wherry Road 2 bed fifth floor apartment (728 sq ft) Sold June 2018 285,000-391psf Plot 27 Skipper House, Ber Street 1 bed second floor apartment (467 sq ft) Sold Spring 2018 150,000-321 psf Plot 16 Conisford Court, Rose Lane 1 bed second floor apartment (566 sq ft) Reserved Spring 2018 195,000-345 psf Plot 98, Sentinel House, Surrey Street 1 bed first floor apartment (442 sq ft) Sold early 2018 155,000-351 psf To discuss this further contact our Norwich New Homes team on 01603 229428. 11
w\/ w\/ Third Floor /Roof plan Plot 47 Plot 46 Plot 45 Plot 44 Plot 43 Plot 42 Plot 52 Plot 51 Plot 50 Plot 49 Plot 53 Plot 31 Plot 32 Plot 33 Plot 34 Lift Plot 36 Plot 37 Plot 38 Plot 39 Plot 40 Plot 41 Second Floor Plot 48 Plot 47 Plot 46 Plot 45 Plot 44 Plot 43 Plot 42 Plot 52 Plot 51 Plot 50 Plot 49 Plot 31 Plot 32 Plot 33 Plot 34 Plot 35 Plot 36 Plot 37 Plot 38 Plot 39 Plot 40 Plot 41 First Floor Plot 28 Plot 27 Plot 26 Plot 25 Plot 30 Plot 29 Plot 22 Plot 23 Plot 24 Plot 19 Plot 20 Plot 21 Ground Floor Plot 16 Plot 15 Plot 14 Plot 13 Plot 18 Plot 17 Plot 10 Plot 11 Plot 12 Plot 7 Plot 8 Plot 9 Lower Ground Floor Plot 4 Plot 5 Plot 6 12 Plot 1 Plot 2 Plot 3 Residential feasibility plans for indicative purposes only. N
Further Information Should you have any queries or wish to make a site inspection, please contact: Darryl Stevenson DD: 020 7297 6277 darryl.stevenson@bidwells.co.uk Saul Western DD: 020 729 6275 saul.western@bidwells.co.uk EPC Ratings The property has the following EPC ratings. Floor / Suite (Tenant) EPC Rating Part Ground West (Vacant) E114 Part Ground West (Car Dealer) D88 Ground East (Outlook Publishing Ltd) E114 Part 1st West (Next GeoSolutions UKCS Ltd) C72 Part 1st West (Vacant) C69 1st East (Mott Macdonald Ltd) D87 2nd West (MJP Conveyancing Ltd) D81 2nd East (Certas Energy UK Ltd) D76 VAT We understand that the property is elected for VAT. It is assumed this transaction will be structured as a transfer of a going concern. Proposal Our client is seeking offers in excess of 3,200,000 for its freehold interest, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT. A purchase at this level would reflect an attractive net initial yield of 8.85% based on standard purchaser s costs of 6.47%. Bidwells 25 Old Burlington Street London W1S 3AN Tel: 020 7493 3043 February 2019 13
Bidwells 25 Old Burlington Street London W1S 3AN Tel: 020 7493 3043 bidwells.co.uk IMPORTANT NOTICE Bidwells LLP act for themselves and for the vendors of this property, whose agents they are, give notice that: Nothing contained in these particulars or their contents or actions, both verbally or in writing, by Bidwells LLP form any offer or contract, liability or implied obligation to any applicants, viewing parties or prospective purchasers of the property to the fullest extent permitted by law and should not be relied upon as statements or representative of fact. No person in the employment of Bidwells LLP or any joint agents has authority to make or give any representation or warranty whatever in relation to this property. Any areas of measurements or distances are approximate. The text, photographs and plans are for guidance only, may not be to scale and are not necessarily comprehensive. No assumptions should be made that the property has all necessary planning, building regulation or other consents. Bidwells LLP has not carried out a survey, nor tested the services, appliances or facilities. Purchasers must satisfy themselves by inspection or otherwise. All rentals and prices are quoted exclusive of VAT unless otherwise stated. Prospective purchasers may be asked to produce identification of the intended Purchaser and other documentation in order to support any conditional offers submitted to the vendors. Bidwells LLP accepts no liability of any type arising from your delay or other lack of co-operation. We may hold your name on our database unless you instruct us otherwise. OS licence no. ES 100017734. Copyright Bidwells LLP 2017. Bidwells LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (registered number OC 344553). Registered office is Bidwell House, Trumpington Road, Cambridge CB2 9LD where a list of members is available for inspection. Your statutory rights are not affected by this notice.