A MAJOR retail park has changed hands in a £56m-plus deal.

Junction 27 alongside the M62 at Birstall has been bought by the UK Commercial Property Trust – the country’s biggest commercial property investment trust – from Henderson Global Investors for £56.63m.

Junction 27 has eight retail units and 540 parking spaces covering 122,376sq ft. First developed in 1999, its anchor tenants include DSG Retail trading as Currys, Comet Group Plc, Homestyle trading as Harveys, CSL Lounge Suites Ltd trading as CSL, Furniture Village Plc, Barker & Stonehouse Ltd, A Share and Sons trading as SCS and TGI Fridays Ltd.

The current gross annual rent receivable in respect of the properties is about £3.7m a year.

Juntion 27 is the second significant purchase by the UKCPT in recent weeks. The trust recently announced the purchase of three shopping centres in Shrewsbury for £61m.

Earlier this year, the UKCPT raised about £150m through a stock market placing to fund new acquisitions.

As a consequence of the capital raising, the assets under management of the trust have grown to about £920m.

Robert Boag, manager of the UKCPT, said: “This purchase represents a significant investment which is funded by the equity raised by the trust earlier this year.

“The latest acquisition increases the portfolio asset base and the UKCPT’s exposure to retail warehousing that offers medium to long term growth prospects. We see numerous asset management opportunities to improve income and deliver a strong income return in both Shrewsbury and Junction 27.”