NI company in £41m deal for offices in Glasgow

A CO Down property firm which recently bought CastleCourt shopping centre is taking on another Scottish office development in a £41m deal.

Holywood firm Wirefox, headed by BJ Eastwood, has completed the purchase of City Park, a 294,000sq ft building on the edge of Glasgow city centre.

The five-storey building underwent major redevelopment works in 2002 to convert it to office space.

It’s currently occupied on a “multi-let basis” by a variety of tenants.

It was formerly a tobacco and cigar factory.

It comes just weeks after Wirefox announced the £43.5m acquisition of another office development in Glasgow.

Wirefox purchased the 11-storey Capella building, which is made up of more than 100,000sq ft of office space and is located in the heart of Glasgow’s international financial services district.

Meanwhile, in May, Wirefox completed the £18m purchase of Silvan House in Edinburgh, which is let to the Scottish government, as well as the Southergate shopping centre in Dumfries town centre last September for £6.75m.

The purchase of the City Park and Capella buildings further extends Wirefox’s growing Scottish portfolio.

The firm bought six commercial properties on the outskirts of Glasgow, known as the Rockford portfolio, for £35m in May.

The portfolio includes nine office blocks, comprising of 384,146 sq ft of office space.

In July, Wirefox completed the purchase of CastleCourt shopping centre in Belfast for £125m from Hermes Investment Management, in one of the biggest transactions to take place here in recent years.

The new owners said they plan to invest “significantly” in the centre.

CastleCourt first opened its doors to the public in 1990, becoming Belfast’s first major shopping centre.

The centre was developed by John Laing on the site of the former Grand Central Hotel, whose guests included The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

In 2004, CastleCourt underwent a significant refurbishment to upgrade the existing food court, car park and customer facilities and more recently was re-branded.