On behalf of one of its investor clients, Redevco, one of Europe’s largest privately-owned real estate investment managers, has agreed to acquire Templars Square in Oxford for £38.8 (€42.5) million from New River.
Redevco will purchase the 1960s local shopping centre with a view to transforming it into a landmark residential-led mixed urban scheme over the next decade.
The project has a pre-existing planning consent that includes 226 residential units.
Tom Hoye, transaction director at Redevco United Kingdom, said: “Templars Square offers an outstanding opportunity for Redevco to do what it does best, namely helping cities become more sustainable and liveable places. We plan to take a much-loved, but dated, retail asset and transform it into a thriving urban destination which will continue to draw in the local community.”
Templars Square, which lies 2.5 miles (4 kms) south-east of Oxford’s city centre, is a covered mall-based shopping centre with some open-air and street-facing retail units, two car parks (Knights and Barns Road) and upper-floor offices.
The 3.65-hectare site is broadly located between Cowley’s Towns Road to the north and Hockmore Street to the south. The asset is part freehold, with the majority owned as long-leasehold for a period of close to 200 years.
