Administrators sell Woking’s Peacocks shopping centre

Administrators at Grant Thornton have closed the sale of the Peacocks shopping centre in Woking to the Arora Group. The centre, understood to have sold for around £20m, measures 542,528 sq ft. It has 80 stores and is set on 8.8 acres of land in the town centre. Savills was appointed to sell the centre with a guide price of around £25m. Moyallen originally acquired the asset back in 2008 for £116m. The companies that owned and operated the centre went into administration in April last year. The Peacocks is the second shopping centre that the group has bought out of administration, after acquiring the County Mall in Crawley from Abrdn in August last year. Arora, which is more widely known as a specialist airport hotel owner-operator, established its first city centre hotel in 2017 with the opening of the InterContinental London at The O2. It recently diversified into the country house hotel market with the opening of Fairmont Windsor Park and acquisition of the Luton Hoo Hotel, Golf & Spa in December 2021. Arora Group chief operating officer and head of property Sanjay Arora said: “Our acquisition of the Peacocks Centre is continuing the vision I have for creating a strong diversified portfolio in numerous real estate asset classes. “We continue our expansion drive into the retail sector and look forward to working very closely with Woking Borough Council to make this centre a true success again, neighboured by their incredible Victoria Place development.” Woking Borough Council leader Ann-Marie Barker said: “As the freeholder of the site, and a major stakeholder in the town centre, I welcome the investment Arora has made in Woking and the certainty it brings to retailers, their employees and visitors to the town.” See more sales information in Woking>> To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@eg.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @EGPropertyNews Image © Savills