Quorum, one of the UK’s biggest business parks, has been sold in a deal believed to be worth as much as £40m.
London based asset management group Shelborn has taken over management and ownership of around 50% of the office park, which has more than 1m square feet of space in total and is home to blue chip companies and major employers including Balfour Beatty, Greggs, Engie, Tesco Bank and Insure the Box.
The far reaching deal sees Shelborn – which incorporated new company Shelborn Quorum Ltd in September – purchase around 50% of the property, with the rest of the park having been snapped up in a series of multimillion-pound deals over the last few years.
The sale comes six years after North Tyneside based Quorum was bought by exiting owners US-based private equity group Cerberus in a deal thought to be worth around £70m.
The deal also ends asset manager Broadoak’s association with Quorum, 11 years after Broadoak director Fergus Trim became involved with the park at its inception.
Mr Trim, who set up Broadoak in 2014 to working primarily with outgoing owners New York-based Cerberus, moved to the region from London in 2008 when a joint venture between London-based investors Tritax and York-based developers Grantside raised funds needed to complete the park.
Since taking up the senior role at Quorum he has proved pivotal in bringing thousands of jobs to the region, welcoming more than 30 major employers to the park including the likes of Tesco Bank and Balfour Beatty, after making a compelling case to potential inward investors and home-grown firms of Quorum’s position as a well-connected, modern setting to do business.
As well as attracting big employers, the park, which has around 6,500 employees across all its tenants, has also proved an attractive investment for firms in the UK and further afield. With the addition of this deal, the last year alone has seen around 75% of the park’s space change hands, including Q4 which was sold by Sisu Advisors to a Manchester property company in March for £4.6m.
Mr Trim heralded the deal as a huge vote of confidence in the North East, and said he would reveal Broadoak’s next plans soon, once Broadoak has moved out of Quorum into new offices in Newcastle.
He said: “We had a strong year with good interest in Quorum and we have had a number of new, significant leases and leases in hand, which has enabled us to achieve a successful exit for the current investors.
“The park is well set to achieve further success for the new owners.”
New owners Shelborn, which owns property across the UK including Maxim Park in Scotland and Trinity Point in Birmingham, have yet to comment on the deal.
