British Heart Foundation chooses Swansea’s Enterprise Park

A NEWLY-REFURBISHED property on Swansea’s Enterprise Park has attracted the British Heart Foundation (BHF) as the location for its second furniture and electrical store in the city.

Property advisory firm LSH acted for a London-based trust, advising them to upgrade the 11,000sq ft warehouse, Unit 8B on St David’s Retail Park, in order to meet occupier demand.

Post-refurbishment the LSH consultants considered interest from several big-name operators before letting it to BHF Cymru. The property had sat empty for several years.

Jason Thorne, agency director at LSH in Swansea: “This is an excellent example of how investing through refurbishment can reap rewards for landlords.

“Even though this property was in a prominent position at one of the main entrances into this long-established retail park, it was not fit-for-purpose so lacked market appeal.

“There is a severe shortage of good quality accommodation in the current south west Wales market, so it makes sense for investors to focus on improving obsolete, well-located stock. Development funders should also look for opportunities in areas that will benefit from planned road infrastructure improvements.”

Thomson Heaney acted for BHF, a charity that for over 50 years has pioneered research which has transformed the lives of people living with heart and circulatory conditions.

Its new Swansea shop opened recently and is one of 170 furniture and electrical stores across England, Scotland and Wales, and where last year (2017) sales throughout Wales alone reached £6.7m.

The first Swansea BHF store opened on the Kingsway in the city centre in 2009.