The facts
Client: Sue Ryder
Location: Various UK locations
Services: Corporate services
Sector: Retail
Start/ Completion: 2011 - Ongoing
The project
Sue Ryder was looking to acquire 40 retail stores by the
end of 2011. The stores needed to be within their budget on ten
year leases with a five year break option and protected by the
Landlord & Tenant Act 1954. Each store had to be accessible by
car to enable the public to drop off donations of clothing,
bric-a-brac and furniture.
They had two types of space requirements being 750 sq ft to
1,500 sq ft for smaller stores and 2,000 sq ft to 7,000 sq ft for
larger stores that would sell furniture. A service bay at the rear
of the larger stores was essential.
Desktop searches were undertaken by our retail agency team and
sent to Sue Ryder with our recommendations. A schedule was created
to help the team keep the acquisition programme on its tight time
frame. It set out each stage of the property transactions including
milestones and target completion dates, and was reviewed with the
client every two weeks.
We inspected each potential property and produced a detailed
inspection report that enabled the client to select their
preference and instruct us to progress negotiations with the
landlord. After successfully negotiating terms, we supplied the
client with the heads of terms and a property summary sheet. This
simplified the heads of terms and allowed them to instruct
solicitors. A photographic condition survey was produced for each
property by our Building Consultancy team to protect the client’s
repairing liability.
Our team liaised between the solicitors, designers and shop fit
project management team until all matters were completed and we
were in a position to complete the lease.
- We achieved break options on the majority of new leases.
- Each site we identified had good access by foot and car, some
of which are in prime retail pitches with highly visible
frontages.
- We hit our target of 40 new stores at the end of 2011 and
continue to work towards their requirement of 50 stores in
2012.