Fund manager poised to acquire Aberdeen office asset

Aerium ventures north of the border with £50m acquisition of Aberdeen’s IQ Building

Article posted: 17 May 2011

Fund manager Aerium is set to acquire offices in Aberdeen in a purchase which will be a Scottish debut for the firm.

Aerium has placed under offer Aberdeen’s IQ Building for £50m, a net initial yield of 6.5%.

The IQ Building was developed by Hazeldene Group and comprises six storeys totalling 125,000 sq ft of office accommodation. It was completed only two months ago and immediately secured two high profile tenants with the signing of energy companies Centrica and Wood Group.

Centrica were the first to commit to the new scheme taking 60,000 sq ft on the top three floors of the property at £31 per sq ft, a record for the city. Wood Group then took the remaining 65,000 sq ft at a slightly reduced rent.

According to a recent report by Ryden, the recent trend of sales and lettings of office space in Edinburgh and Glasgow running below average, but above average for office space in Aberdeen continues with market seeing a surge in demand, due to the price of oil.

Take-up figures in the last six months to March were up 45% to 355,209 sq ft and beyond this, a large number of available office suites are currently under offer. Within the city centre there is virtually no Grade A space available, with the exception of the final remaining suite in Union Plaza and three floors within City Wharf.

Aerium are advised by CB Richard Ellis; Aerium; Ryden and Donald Begg act on behalf of Hazeldene.

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Posted by Janet