London—Dentons has closed its second supermarket portfolio sale for the John Lewis Partnership in the space of a week. The freehold of six Waitrose supermarkets have been acquired by real estate investment trust Supermarket Income REIT for £74.1m. The stores, which will continue to trade as normal, will be leased back to Waitrose for 20 years (with a tenant break at year 15).

Located in Eastbourne, Edenbridge, Ely, Oundle, Sandbach and Sudbury, the stores have an average gross internal area of 32,000 sq ft. 

Last week Dentons advised the John Lewis Partnership on the sale and leaseback of five Waitrose Limited stores to property investor LondonMetric for £62 million.

Deepa Deb, head of Dentons' UK Real Estate practice, led on both transactions. She comments, "This is the second portfolio sale of supermarkets we have closed for longstanding client the John Lewis Partnership in the space of a week. All of these Waitrose stores have a solid trading record and it evidences that the investment market in supermarkets remains strong in the current climate."

Deepa Deb was assisted by associates Amy Smith, Alexis Condie, Rachel Dunn and Calum McKenzie.

Over the past year, Dentons' UK Real Estate team has advised on several high profile transactions such as Doosan Babcock's continued occupation of its site in Renfrew (billed as Scotland's largest industrial property deal in 2019), Sports Direct's sale and leaseback of its Derbyshire distribution centre, and the sale of the Hampton by Hilton at Bristol Airport to Ability Group.

Dentons has launched several tools for businesses over the past few months to help with real estate issues related to COVID-19 across England, Wales and Scotland, including the COVID-19 Interactive Agreement Tool Kit and COVID-19 Interactive Lease Tool Kit. See all insights and resources on Dentons' global COVID-19 hub.

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