The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will spend $600-million for a quarter stake in a London shopping centre at the heart of the city’s Olympic village.
The pension fund said it would own 25 per cent of the Westfield Stratford City project, with APG of the Netherlands scooping up another 25 per cent stake for the same price. Developer Westfield Group will retain the other 50 per cent of the retail project, which has been valued near $2.5-billion.
The centre will be anchored by John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and a movie theatre. It will include more than 300 stores and 50 restaurants. Westfield Stratford City is next to the site of the 2012 London Olympics, and will have 1.9-million square feet of retail and entertainment space when it is finished in the third quarter of 2011. About 75 per cent of the space is pre-leased.
“We are pleased to be investing alongside our established partners APG and Westfield to acquire a high quality shopping centre like Westfield Stratford City which we believe will deliver stable cash flows and good growth prospects over the long-term,” said Graeme Eadie, senior vice-president of real estate investments at CPPIB.
