Background
Waverley Mall, branded as "Edinburgh's first and last stop", occupies over 120,000 sq. ft of retail space on Princess Street, immediately adjacent to Waverley Train Station. Opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1985, Waverley Mall has since undergone numerous refurbishments and redevelopments, most recently a £4 million refurbishment in 2016.
For almost two decades, we have acted for the Moorgarth Group, owners of the Mall, who have engaged MFMac on numerous acquisitions, disposals and general asset management of a number of assets throughout Scotland, including this prime asset in Edinburgh. Tenants at the Mall include Sainsbury's, New Look, The Whisky Shop, Mor Bakehouse, and McDonalds.
We acted in the acquisition of the long leasehold interest in the Mall in 2017. Since then, we have acted in respect of numerous asset management and leasing deals, including negotiation of a number of new leases and re-gears; advising on retailer insolvency events as and when appropriate; and continued asset management.
Søstrene Grene Lease
MFMac were instructed in late 2023 to on a pre-let of a unit at Waverley Mall to Søstrene Grene, a Danish family-owned retail chain with ambitious plans to open 50 stores in the UK by 2027. The new store occupies part of a larger unit formerly occupied by Superdry, with certain works required to sub-divide and put the space in to a condition ready for its new tenant.
We successfully negotiated and concluded a conditional agreement for lease, with the transaction involving a number of moving parts, including; (i) Moorgarth submitting and obtaining a building warrant for sub-division works; (ii) Søstrene Grene submitting and obtaining a building warrant for their extensive fit-out programme; (iii) the landlord procuring completion of the sub-division works and putting the unit in to a shell-condition; and (iv) extensive transaction management to ensure each element completed accordingly and to cater for both side's bespoke requirements in respect of marketing, lead-in and handover.
Conclusion
We continue to advise on matters at Waverley Mall which we expect will be transformative in the coming years, particularly in light of the continued evolution of the retail sector.
Our ongoing and extensive engagement with Waverley Mall evidences our ability to advise on high value and complex transactions, engaging a multi-disciplinary approach when required (including the Real Estate, Construction, Projects, Planning and Litigation teams) to advise on a varying range of matters on a daily basis.
We are delighted to be retained on the Mall and a number of other Scottish assets by Moorgarth whilst working with their legal advisers in England on cross-border projects. Our continued engagement spanning a number of different divisions within the business shows why clients trust MFMac to meet their ever-changing requirements.
