Intu Metrocentre changes hands

Sovereign Centros has taken over as asset manager of the intu Metrocentre in Gateshead, with Savills appointed as its property manager. The company will manage the 2.1m sq ft centre on behalf of the Metrocentre Partnership, which launched a consent solicitation last week to gain bondholder approval for the move. The partnership includes Singapore’s GIC Real Estate. Sovereign Centros said it has made an initial £25m available for investment into the centre. The firm said it is in discussions with “a number of existing retailers” on upsizing their stores at the complex, which comprises 300 shops.  New occupiers include Next’s beauty and home concept which agreed to take over the former Debenhams in August, a Hamleys pop-up and Sky’s new bricks-and-mortar offering. Sovereign Centros also plans to invest in the retail park adjacent to the centre and refresh its occupier line-up. Chris Geaves, chief executive of Sovereign Centros, said: “There are clearly challenges for us all at this time but we want to take the centre back to where it was as ‘The Metrocentre’, which the local community was always very proud of. “Our aim is to inject new life with vigour with different uses to ensure that it remains the place to come to for a very long time.” Following intu’s administration, other recent transfers include the four shopping centres in the intu SGS structure, which have been taken over by Global Mutual, and a trio of schemes in the Debenture structure, now controlled by MAPP. Ellandi has taken control of intu Merry Hill and Milton Keynes, while intu Derby is now operated by Ken Ford and Savills on behalf of Cale Street Investments. The Metrocentre was founded by John Hall, a miner’s son who acquired the site for £100,000. It became the largest shopping centre in the UK when it opened in October 1986.  With funding from the Church Commissioners, the early phases of the shopping centre included a major Carrefour supermarket, which subsequently became Asda and then Gateway. Sovereign Centros manages 2m sq ft of properties across the UK, worth an estimated £2bn. To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette Image © intu