Lancaster Market put up for sale for £6 million
IF anyone has a spare £6million burning a hole in their bank account – Lancaster Market is up for sale.
The market will be auctioned later this month by Boultbee (Lancaster) Ltd, which also owns Marketgate Shopping Centre.
Graham Cox, head of property services at the city council, said: "Boultbee have decided to offer the market building for sale as an investment and have included it in an auction sale.
"The market businesses inside the market building will not be affected in anyway by this sale – it will be business as usual inside the market so please continue to visit and shop at the market.
"The sale of shopping centres, or parts of them, is common within the property industry. Indeed, the Marketgate centre has already changed hands a number of times in recent years."
The two-storey market is
marketed by auctioneers Jones Lang LaSalle as being available as a freehold market hall and car park investment, currently 94 per cent let to Lancaster City Council until 2094 with an option to renew for a further 60 years.
The building includes a rooftop car park with 44 spaces. The market is home to 28 stalls, three retail units and a kiosk on the ground floor; and 23 stalls on the first floor.
Peter Corke, chairman of the market tenants' committee, said stallholders are not concerned at the prospect of new owners.
"We are not in any way panicked by this because it will not make a big difference to us who owns it," he said.
The market hall is currently
rented out to Lancaster City Council at a cost of 296,000 a year - but tenants would like the council to take it on themselves.
"We think the council should look seriously at raising the funds to buy the market back," Mr Corke added.
"It just seems like a golden opportunity for them to take control of it instead of paying out dead money in rent forever."
However, Mr Cox said the council would not be bidding.
"The guide price is 6million and speculative purchases of this sort are not part of the capital investment priorities that the council approved in last year's budget and policy framework," he said.
The auction takes place on October 16.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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