23rd January 2018

Aprirose buys Government-let Taunton office

Aprirose has bought a modern headquarters-style office building located in Taunton for £14 million.

The office building is let in its entirety to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, on a 10-year unexpired term ending on 21 August 2027. The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government is a department of the UK Government and a Moody’s AA credit rated tenant. It was originally built to be a regional Fire Control Centre.

The building, constructed in 2006, is 24,370 sq ft and has 74 secure car parking spaces and is situated on Taunton’s premier Blackbrook Business Park, advantageously positioned two miles from Junction 25 of the M5 Motorway.

Manish Gudka, CEO, Aprirose, said: “The long-income Government let office building represents a fantastic and highly secure investment for Aprirose. Moreover, Taunton is Somerset’s largest town and is the county’s administrative, retail and financial centre. Blackbrook is a premier business park which is home to numerous amenities and other strong corporate and local tenants. We continue to look for the best investments for our investors and act swiftly to complete them.”

In 2004 the Government approved a scheme to build nine regional Fire Control Centres to replace 46 separate centres across the country. However in 2010, with costs spiralling and major delays to the IT software programme the coalition government cancelled the scheme. Some of the buildings have been converted for other uses, whilst others remain empty.

Alder King represented Aprirose and CBRE represented the vendor.