New owners for town retail centre

A PRIVATE investment firm based in Greater Manchester is now the owner of a major section of The Crescent.

Telelink Estates purchased Blocks A and B of the mall in a deal worth £10 million from developers the Tin Hat Regeneration Partnership.

Specialist retail investment agency Coady Supple brokered the sale of the retail, leisure and supermarket parade.

According to company records Telelink Estates has two directors Rosa and Salomon Lasry. A mortgage of £10 million through Lloyds Bank was taken out in June 2017 by the firm.

Before selling up on the main shopping centre Tin Hat had already offloaded the Sainsbury’s store to a Spanish firm.

Block C of the mall, which includes the cinema and bars and restaurants, is owned by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council, having purchased it for more than £2 million.

The council also invested around £2 million as a fixed capital contribution incentive payment to help Cineworld fit out the five-screen cinema and provided a £7 million loan to Tin Hat to rescue the whole project in 2013 when it looked like flagship tenant Sainsbury’s was exiting because of delays.

Thanks to this investment the sale of Blocks A and B to Telelink Estates will have generated income for the authority in the region of around £1 million.

Most of the units at The Cres- cent are now full.

The latest opening was the Wildwood restaurant next door to Tarro Lounge. This leaves two units vacant in the council-owned Block C.

Rent from Block C in 2016-17 amounted to £240,000, some £135,000 less than the council anticipated due to the unlet units.

The council has set aside around half a million pounds which can be used as incentives to attract new tenants.