Tussle to buy Peterborough's Hereward Cross Shopping Centre emerges as 192 year lease is put up for sale for £6.3 million

A skirmish is developing to buy a prominent shopping centre in Peterborough, where the principal lease has gone on the market with a price tag of £6.3 million.

The so-called head lease of the 1960s built Hereward Cross, which has Wilko and Poundland as its anchor tenants, is being sold with about 192 years still to run.

The sale of the lease is being handled jointly by commercial agents Knight Frank and Savills on behalf of the lease holding company, which has not been named.

But it has also been revealed that Peterborough City Council, which owns the freehold of Hereward Cross, making it the outright owner of the building, has recently received offers to buy the property outright.

Councillor Andy Coles, the council’s cabinet member for finance and corporate governance, said: "We have received a couple of offers but we haven’t accepted any yet.

"We are willing to take an offer.

"The council had not been looking to sell the freehold but this is an opportunity to raise capital from the sale of assets.”

The price the council is willing to accept for the building has not been disclosed.

The move to sell Hereward Cross comes after it was announced that the council is selling the Grade II listed eco innovation centre Peterscourt in City Road for £1.5 million.

The council has a register of assets that it is looking to dispose of as it seeks to both reduce its £442 million debt and build up reserves.

The centre sits on a 1.23 acre site with 13 retail units, a public house, 65 parking spaces, 39 of which are sold on separate long leases, and 33 residential apartments, which are also sold on long leases and generate a total net rent of £804,580 a year.

The details shows the head lease was renegotiated and secured for 200 years from July 6, 2015 to July 5, 2215 meaning there are about 192 years still to go.

The sale price is a £3 million plus reduction on the amount sought when the building was on the market in 2020 when its asking price was £9.6 million.