Property trust unveils twin Scottish deals as part of £109m acquisitions

● Deals include forward funding of hotel in Edinburgh and Fife retail outlets

A stock market-listed property fund has agreed two Scottish deals as part of a string of acquisitions totalling more than £100 million.

LXI Reit, which is structured as a real estate investment trust, said it had exchanged contracts to provide forward funding for the pre-let development of a 70-bedroom Travelodge hotel at Edinburgh Park to the west of the capital.

The development, which is fully pre-let to Travelodge Hotels on a 25-year lease from completion of the building works, represents a total investment by the company of £6.6m.

The trust said it would receive an income from the developer during the construction period. It is not developing the site or assuming development risk. The building works are due to complete in the third quarter of 2019.

Meanwhile, LXI Reit is also providing forward funding for the pre-let development of a Lidl foodstore and B&M discount outlet to be built at Cowdenbeath, Fife, for £8.5m.

Thelidlproperty,whichwill be just over 19,300 square feet in size, has been fully pre-let to Lidl UK on a 25-year lease from completion of the building works. The 20,000 sq ft B&M property has been prelet to B&M Retail on an unbroken 15-year lease.

Like the Travelodge scheme, LXI will receive an income from the developer during the construction phase. The company is not developing the site or assuming development risk and building works are due to complete later next year.

In further deals, the trust said it had completed the acquisition of a 247-bedroom Jurys Inn hotel in Plymouth for £30m.

It has also acquired a 121acre car storage facility in Corby, Northamptonshire, for £60m and bought a 33,500 sq ft Range discount store in Carlisle for £4.3m.

Simon Lee, a partner at LXI Reit Advisors, which manages the fund, said: “We are pleased to be investing just over £109m from our £175m capital raising announced on 12 October.

“These are five high quality assets, diversified across a wide range of robust subsectors, leased to institutional grade tenants on very long term leases with inflation linked rents.

“The company is in solicitors’ hands on a range of further accretive acquisitions that meet our selective investment strategy and will deliver further value to our investors.

“These acquisitions will result in the full deployment of the recent capital raise in the next few weeks.”

LXI Reit invests in UK property assets on very long leases.