Montréal, Quebec - Ivanhoe Cambridge and The Mills Corporation (NYSE: MLS) announced today that a 50-50 joint venture between affiliates of the two companies has agreed to acquire St. Enoch Centre in Glasgow, Scotland from Deka Immobilien Investment. The Mills will manage the shopping centre for the venture and will receive customary development, leasing and management fees.
St. Enoch Centre, which opened in 1989, features approximately 715,000 square feet of retail space and is 98.6% occupied (93.4% excluding holdovers and temporary tenants). Potential expansion and development opportunities with varying levels of approval have been identified, including approximately 50,000 square feet of expansion on the property’s St Enoch Square frontage that is fully entitled.
A number of spaces in locations strategic to the centre’s redevelopment scheme intentionally have been assigned temporary leases or left vacant. If those spaces were converted to permanent, market-rate leases, it is expected that first-year net operating income (NOI) would be approximately £16.7 million (CDN$39.7 million). Excluding this income, NOI would be £15.5 million ( CDN$36.9 million).
The total acquisition price for the unencumbered property is approximately £272.5 million (CDN$648.6 million) before transaction costs. The Mills/Ivanhoe Cambridge venture is funding the purchase through a combination of debt and equity. The agreement is subject to customary closing costs and the transaction is expected to close in January 2005.
St. Enoch Centre has an estimated 20 million visitors per year and is located in the heart of Glasgow’s busy city-centre shopping district at the intersection of Buchanan Street and Argyle Street. The property is accessible by car, train, metro and bus and is positioned to benefit from downtown Glasgow’s ongoing transformation to a major cultural and tourist destination. The whole area between the shopping centre and the River Clyde is being redeveloped with more than 3,500 quality apartments along the waterfront.
This will provide increased pedestrian flow and establish St. Enoch Square as the new focal point in the city.
The Mills Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Laurence C. Siegel said, “St. Enoch Centre is a wellestablished, high-performing shopping centre located at the intersection of Glasgow’s two prime downtown shopping streets in the UK’s most productive retail market outside Central London. This is an unparalleled opportunity to acquire a shopping mall with strong upside potential in a premier location in a premier market. We are pleased to expand our existing relationship with Ivanhoe Cambridge, whose expertise in the European market will add strategic value to our venture. The acquisition of St. Enoch Centre, along with Madrid Xanadú and our other key developments in the UK, Spain and Italy, provides The Mills with a strong foundation to further build our franchise in select European markets and create maximum shareholder value.”
Last year The Mills became the first U.S. developer to build a major retail centre in Europe when it opened the 1.4 million-square-foot Madrid Xanadú. The company also recently was awarded the right to redevelop the historic Mercati Generali site in the centre of Rome, and with Ivanhoe Cambridge last month opened Vaughan Mills in Toronto, the first enclosed regional shopping mall built in Canada in 14 years.
The centre is comprised of two distinct retail components. The first is a six-level retail centre fronting directly onto the prime shopping zone of Argyle Street, anchored by a 270,000-square-foot Debenhams department store as well as HMV, Gap, Top Shop, Virgin and Powerhouse. The second is the main centre, anchored by an 81,000-square-foot BhS department store and a 32,000-square-foot Boots, with two levels of in-line retail. Other key tenants include Dorothy Perkins, Burton, The Disney Store, Wallis and O2. The centre also includes a refurbished food court that seats 900 and a 750-car parking garage and 111-car parking lot.
René Tremblay, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ivanhoe Cambridge, said, “This acquisition is in line with our strategy of diversifying our portfolio geographically by increasing our international investments. St. Enoch is a shopping centre with significant value-added potential. We chose to join with The Mills in this investment because of its proven track record in developing and managing topperforming retail destinations throughout the U.S. and Europe. Our most recent Mills joint venture, Vaughan Mills in greater Toronto, has been a resounding success and demonstrates the potency of The Mills and Ivanhoe Cambridge working together.”
Glasgow is Scotland’s largest city, and with a total catchment of approximately 4.25 million, it has the UK’s largest and most productive shopping population outside of central London. Glasgow also is one of Europe’s most visited cities, enjoying steadily increasing tourism over the past 10 years.
About The Mills
The Mills Corporation is a self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) based in Arlington, Virginia that owns, develops, leases, manages and/or markets a portfolio of 38 retail and entertainment destinations totaling approximately 47 million square feet. Currently, the Company has six projects under construction or development around the world.
About Ivanhoe Cambridge
Ivanhoe Cambridge is a recognized leader in the Canadian real estate industry. It is one of Canada’s preeminent property owners, managers, developers and investors. Headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, the Company focuses on high -quality shopping centres located in urban areas. Its real estate portfolio consists of more than 39 million square feet of retail space and includes 50 regional and super-regional shopping centres. As at December 31, 2003, the market value of Ivanhoe Cambridge’s assets was over CDN $6.8 billion.
Ivanhoe Cambridge is a principal real estate subsidiary of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Amongst its shareholders, the Company also counts four prominent Canadian pension funds.