Aviva has completed the sale of the Corn Exchange, a prime retail asset in the centre of Manchester, React News can reveal.
An ultra-high net worth individual, based in the Middle East, has completed the acquisition of the prominent building, after first having placed the asset under offer in September last year.
The Corn Exchange was marketed at a guide price of £42.8m, which would give a net initial yield of 6.4%, with pricing understood to be around asking. Cooper Rose acted for the purchaser and KLM Real Estate acted for the vendor.
After Aviva launched the sale in summer 2022, having fully repurposed the prime asset, there were understood to be seven bidders for the asset, with the Middle Eastern buyer emerging as the ultimate buyer.
The building is a Grade II-listed former market hall that was redeveloped by Queensberry Real Estate – backed by Aviva – and reopened in 2015. What had previously been the Triangle, an underused retail and leisure block, became the Corn Exchange and was re-let to a number of restaurant brands as well as a Roomzzz hotel which opened in 2017.
The scheme is 93% let and the 18 leases provide a total of £2.9m in rent. Occupiers include Mowgli, Zizzi, Cosy Club, Pizza Express, Tampopo and Pho.
The Corn Exchange occupies a prime location in central Manchester, opposite the main entrance to the 1.7m sq ft Arndale shopping centre, the Printworks cinema and leisure site, the National Football Museum, Manchester Victoria train station, the Manchester Arena and the Manchester Cathedral.
The sales process for the Corn Exchange began in May 2021, when Aviva announced it would be winding up the Aviva Investors UK Property Fund. Challenges across various sectors led to crashing values, forcing the fund manager to offload many of its prized assets including 20 Soho Square, which was sold for £117m in 2018.
The Corn Exchange was one of the largest remaining assets in the fund, after the sale of Lombardy Shopping Park in Hayes to M7 Real Estate for £47m.
